


Finding Roots

by MMForeverNerd



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alpha Derek, Alpha Peter Hale, Alternate Universe, BAMF Peter Hale, BAMF Stiles, Bad Friend Scott McCall (Teen Wolf), Bad Touch Peter Hale, Dark Alan Deaton, Dark Scott McCall (Teen Wolf), Emissary Stiles Stilinski, Hale Family Feels, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, M/M, Mafia Hale family, Magical Stiles Stilinski, Multi, No actual Rape/Non-con, Past Rape/Non-con, Rich Hale Family (Teen Wolf), The Hale Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-24
Updated: 2021-01-24
Packaged: 2021-03-16 21:42:39
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 32,606
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28963359
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MMForeverNerd/pseuds/MMForeverNerd
Summary: Stiles stilinski really really really wanted to be a pack emissary, but considering the various red flags on his emissary profile he knew this interview with his dream pack had to be a mistake.For years he hadn't gotten a single interview to be an emissary, and had resigned himself to working a mundane job to cover the expenses that came with being a magical jack of all trades on the side. Now he had two interviews for a possible position as an emissary and he was struggling to stop himself from getting hopeful.
Relationships: Derek Hale/Peter Hale/Stiles Stilinski, Derek Hale/Stiles Stilinski, Peter Hale/Stiles Stilinski
Comments: 31
Kudos: 765





	Finding Roots

If you don't like this work no one is forcing you to read it so no nasty comments, also I'm not an editor this isn't beta read so I'm sure their are going to be mistakes, I don't need them pointed out. Everyone else I hope you enjoy!

Finding Roots

This had to be a mistake. There had to have been some error or something, but Stiles couldn’t find one as he looked at the app on his phone. Surprisingly (to some) the supernatural community was fairly modernized to fit in with the changing world.

They had to keep up with the times, to be sure to keep the humans in the dark. That being said, it was rather convenient that some witch had come up with an app to connect various supernatural creatures and being to one another for job purposes.

Of course there was everything from wolves looking for packs in new areas they had to move to for work, to witches searching for certain magical creatures, willing to pay handsomely for this or that ingredient for a spell or potion.

A variant of that app had been made called Finding Roots, though with much more security and professionality, to connect established packs (at least in the same area, with the same alpha for a year) to emissaries.

The company that ran Finding Roots also happened to be the ones that made and administered the licensing and registration of emissaries and established packs. The tests to get an official emissary license were the equivalent of passing the bar (if the bar covered law and a dozen other extensive subjects), and often there were many similar questions.

Emissaries were meant to advice alphas and their packs on all matters, so there were various sections: Supernatural Law, Warding and Protection, Treaties: Negotiation and Maintenance, Hostiles and Battle, Health and Wellness, Counseling and Mediation, Pack Bonds, and a dozen other various less looked at categories.

For an Emissary to get licensed, they had to have an average passing score in all categories, but packs looked very carefully at what categories emissaries did well in. It could determine where you ended up. If you lived in a highly dense population with multiple packs in a small area, no pack would hire someone who didn’t have a high score in Treaties, in either subcategory.

Just like a pack that lived near various supernatural nexuses (they tended to breed stronger wolves among other things) wouldn’t even consider an emissary who didn’t have a mastery of Hostiles and Battle. Some really large packs were able to take more than one emissary, and were careful to pick emissaries that complemented one another, but also collectively covered all their bases.

Every category had a written exam with at least a hundred questions, but there were some that had a practical portion that tended to be where most emissaries got lost. If you had all the practical knowledge in the world, but couldn’t put up a ward that would actually work to protect a pack, then it meant nothing.

The same company also happened to be the first in the world that was able to measure a person’s magical capabilities. That exam wasn’t mandatory to get licensed as an emissary, but since it had come out and proven to be vastly effective, no pack would even consider taking on an emissary who hadn’t taken the aptitude test. It told more than just the overall power a person had, but also gave a clear picture of strengths and weaknesses their very magic had.

Most Druids had strengths in nature and healing, but were weak in adaptive technology and attack magic. Most witches struggled with bonding magic, but excelled at curses and counter curses. Everything was scored and mapped and it meant that packs didn’t have to entertain dozens of emissaries, hoping to find one that could accomplish everything their pack needed.

Stiles wasn’t worried about his scores. In fact, his overall score was one of the top scores since the invention of the exams for emissary licensure, and he was what some would call BAMF in way of magical strength and potential. He hadn’t done as well in the categories of treaties, but he had gotten an above average score and it wasn’t like he wanted to get a position in New York city, or something.

The spark just wanted somewhere on the west coast, southern California was ideal, because after being shipped off to the equivalent of a magical halfway house since he was ten, and then a boarding school type university after only a few years, Stiles just wanted to be closer to his father.

His reasoning for location was a big part of the problem though. Unlike the human justice system, there were no protections for minors. So even though he hadn’t had a magical outburst of grand proportions since he was ten, it was still on his record that he did have them.

The fact that it had happened because he had awoken his spark after the trauma of his mother’s death followed closely by a handful of bullies at his school cornering him and beating him until he ended up hospitalized, was something he could say in his application, but his applications still got a red flag because of it.

If that was his only red flag, then Stiles would probably still have his pick of any available emissary positions, and maybe even a couple that weren’t available. He was the whole package, and really, any magic user with a total magic score over two hundred had that particular flag.

His second red flag, and the one almost no pack was willing to even ask him about, was the fact that his spark had gone dark. Sparks were really rare, in fact there was only three other sparks ever listed in the system since the apps creation. Dark sparks weren’t even really talked about in the various magical schools and universities. Stiles had only found a few obscure references to the phenomenon, and it was the only reason he hadn’t ended up with his powers bound.

For any other type of magic user, if they had the title of dark, it meant they had done some unforgivable and really dark black magic. There was always the blood of the innocent on their hands, and they tended to be power hungry and only loyal so long as it served them well. Which was why one of the very first questions on the app, was if you were considered a dark fill in the blank type of magic user.

Stiles had fought tooth and nail to get that mark off his record, had even got as high up as the board of directors for the company, but the fact was they all said the same. That they couldn’t alter the entire supernatural communities preconceptions. That packs relied on them to be open and up front about everything in regards to their emissary applicants.

The thing was, the only reason a spark turned dark, was because they had lost their innocence. That wasn’t actually a virgin thing, though Stiles had ended up dark the night he lost his virginity. No Sparks were the opposite of other magic users, they only got the title if others had the blood of innocents on their hands, and that blood happened to be the sparks. The title dark had been given to sparks like Stiles because their magic lost the bright golden hues, and often took on darker shades, no matter what kind of magic they were practicing.

It had stuck around because nine times out of ten (literally there had been ten recorded dark sparks in history) the person or persons that were responsible for a spark going dark ended up having a bloody demise that was in some way attributed to the spark. It didn’t matter that half of those had been mates and loved ones seeking vengeance for the atrocities committed to make a spark go dark.

All that in mind, it didn’t matter that Stiles had completed his exams with top scores when he had turned eighteen (the earliest they would let you test), and it didn’t matter that he had retaken the exams each year, ending up with even higher scores in both the licensing exams and the magical potential exams. Nothing he did, nothing he wrote in the written sections even got read, and Stiles had basically given up his dream of becoming a pack emissary.

He tried not to think about that dream, tried not to think about the unbelievably high pay, or the perks like health insurance, living expenses, essentially being adopted into a big family. He tried not to think about how smart he was, and how his magic was being wasted in pretty much every other paying job he took on. He tried not to think of the fact that emissaries were essentially paid salary, while still having the potential to get overtime pay any given week.

Instead of using all the knowledge and skill he had that was essentially molded to being an ideal emissary, Stiles had to do contract work. Work using the other, less professional app that was often sketchy and always irregular.

Even if he had developed a name for himself on the site, it was still frustrating, even if occasionally he got jobs that made him feel better about himself, or the world in general, it didn’t outweigh all the bullshit. In the last year, Stiles had at least two dozen adds and job offers from individuals who were essentially trying to lure him into a trap.

Sparks being so rare and so powerful, there were allot of spells and potions that could be boosted, made stronger, if you just got a pinch of blood or a clump of hair or some other something from a Spark. When money got tight he sometimes sold some of those ingredients for a very high price, one that was always met in minutes, but he hated those that thought they could dupe him or harm him.

He also had to worry about the righteous hunters, the druids trying to maintain the balance, and the covens that upheld the peace. People who somehow found out about his dark status, and thought that meant he needed to be purged from the world. Those were the real dangerous ones, and sometimes they were really good.

A witch had once had a conference call with him, where she had literally been flirting with him, twirling her hair and everything, but when they went to meet in person her and her coven had nearly bound his magic.

The pros of being well versed in supernatural law meant that Stiles had essentially gotten away with murder. Really, a coven who stole years off of hundreds of people’s lives just to stay young and beautiful shouldn’t have tried to take the moral high ground. A simple spell to undo the years they had stolen sent half of them into a grave when their years caught up to them, and even more had killed themselves when they learned they could not even give the illusion that they were younger.

Sometimes, Stiles would do grueling and nearly impossible jobs, and not even really make any money when you looked at all the expenses he had incurred with the job. Reuniting families separated by accidents or hunters. Getting supernatural beings out of mental wards or health facilities that weren’t designed to care for them (there were half a dozen hospitals and mental health facilities across the US specifically designed with supernatural beings in mind).

He helped do research for smaller packs, or younger covens who desperately needed to know about this or that, but didn’t even know where to look to get that information. He did ancient magical translations and helped wolves transitioning from packs or living in packs without an emissary to find their anchors and gave them a manual he had made if they were recently turned.

A supernatural jack of all trades is what he had become known for in the supernatural community. The boy with a golden heart, a wealth of knowledge, a keen intelligence, and the list went on. None of it really went on a muggle resume though, and Stiles had eventually realized he had to get a regular job, one to pay the bills so that he could do the jobs that required he use his magic or his knowledge so that he kept his sanity.

Thankfully Stiles was a man of many talents, and his magic was very well tuned to work in subtle ways, especially in regard to technology. Compared to passing the emissary exam, getting a degree in computer science and computer repair was child’s play. He also happened to make acquaintance with someone with their own impressive skills who had similar aspirations to Stiles.

Danny Mahealani and Stiles had teamed up and built a computer company that basically put Geek Squad in the neighboring counties of Beacon Hills out of business (the town itself hadn’t had one to begin with, despite having grown allot in size since Stiles had been shipped off).

Danny was a whiz at programming and systems, but had no patience for anything else, which meant they were the perfect team because Stiles hated programming, and he might be a wiz at using the internet, but that didn’t translate to all systems.

They both could dabble a little in the others field if necessary, enough to get by if one of them needed to take some times off. Danny had so many sisters and he was very involved with them and their children, which translated to babysitting and dance recitals. Stiles sometimes needed time off to go chase down a young were-coyote who had been lost in the desert for six months before an aunt got word, or various other situations.

The two young men had been friendly, but merely colleges at first. After Stiles had found out Danny was a Curandero, (Stiles had determined it was basically a witch with powers that only manifested in ways that could be used for healing) had picked up the gift from his grandmother, they had actually become friends. It made it allot easier when they could tell each other what was going on in their lives.

Stiles told Danny when he had to go to a magical convention to get the latest updates on various emissary rules and guidelines. Danny told Stiles that every one of his five sisters had been without the family gift, but had children that it appeared in, so he was trying to help them learn the basics.

They even were able to help each other out in unexpected ways, and once they got a bit more personal, they discovered they had a lot more in common than one might have first guest. Danny was a closet nerd, and Stiles was a closet runner.

It blew the minds of a good portion of the towns mind when the two had teamed up, mostly because Danny was best friends with Jackson Whitmore, who happened to be one of the bullies that had landed Stiles in the hospital. He had been the one to break Stiles wrist, not the only or even the worst broken bone he got from that day.

At first they had just steered clear of the topic, but despite all his many flaws, Jackson was an amazing friend to Danny, supported him in everything, even lent Danny the money they had needed for the start up. Jackson hadn’t known Stiles was Danny’s partner, but that wouldn’t have made a difference. Jackson would do anything for his friend, and even though Stiles wasn’t the man’s biggest fan, he also didn’t hold a grudge against him.

The first six months they had worked together Jackson had avoided their little office in the mall like the plague whenever Stiles was present. Anytime he saw Roscoe in the parking lot, he would wait on the other end for Danny to come out or for Stiles to leave. That changed when Danny showed up to work one morning, covering a bruise with his magic. It was healing, but had been too sever while it’s owner had been to worn out to get it taken care of before he got in to work.

When the man had been dismissive and Stiles had picked up a slip of the tongue that made him think Danny’s latest boyfriend was being abusive, he had done some digging, and then he had gone to Jackson with everything he had. IF anyone could get through to Danny, if anyone could do whatever it took to make sure the programming genius was living his best, happy and healthy life, it was that jerk.

That had led to a sort of truce. Stiles doubted they would ever be the best of friends, but they both really liked Danny, so they made it work. Of course, once Danny broke up with the bastard that thought it was okay to use his partner as a punching bag (the man had thankfully already been planning to break up, but had been too embarrassed to tell anyone what happened) and realized that his two friends weren’t acting like they would die if they breathed the same air… It wasn’t long before Danny started instigating positive interactions. Where before Danny would divide his time between the two, he now started inviting them to various shared time together.

It started simply enough, with spent time at the jungle together. Danny played it off as needing support so he could get back out there, and both had gone with him there, just never on the same nights. Jackson went because no one gave him shit for dancing (boy, could he dance), and the music was good.

Stiles went because the drag queens, they loved him and were wonderful for his lack of self-esteem. Though they both went mostly to have fun with their friend. It was awkward as hell, both too nervous to even talk for long stretches.

After a few shots though, things had gone a bit worse, then gone allot better. Mostly Jackson was awful at apologies and was struggling to deal with some of his own insecurities that had been the root of him being a pretty shit person. Also he hadn’t believed that Stiles didn’t hold a grudge against him, and had been worried that Stiles would take it out on Danny.

With that out of the way, slowly, like a tortoise with a bum leg slow, they took steps towards what Danny was sure would be an epic friendship. There had been allot of awkward dinners, where Danny seemed ready to pull his hair out because he couldn’t get both of them to participate in conversation together.

Some of the things Danny thought they might have in common were not quite the same, and heads had nearly been removed when Trek verses Wars had been brought up. The next turning point had been after another night at the jungle.

Their happy-go-lucky friend had gotten drunk a little too fast, Stiles suspected drugs were involved. When they tried to get their friend to his car (they always took Danny’s car because it was neutral territory) a group of five men tried to follow them, the leader of which had been the one to give Danny his last drink.

When red, gold, and more damning blue eyes had been flashed, Stiles had reacted quickly. They were alone in a back alley with no cameras, that’s why the fuckers thought they could get away with what they just did, but that would be their undoing.

Stiles had the four betas knocked to the ground with magic and the Alpha pinned to the wall with an unbreakable hold, even for someone with that kind of strength.

Then he leaned into the near howling wolf’s ear to whisper, “Go ahead, howl, and in no time at all you’ll have the attention of the Hale pack. I’m sure they would be really interested to know what you’re doing in their territory, stirring up trouble and flashing your eyes at just anyone that catches them. If the council heard about that, what do you think would happen? I know it’s rude for me to ask you to do something like that, but let me make one thing clear, if I ever see you around here again, or around my friend, I’ll make sure those eyes can’t get you in any trouble with the council, and you’ll wish you had dealt with them. Do I make myself clear?”

As he had been speaking he had dislocated the wolf’s shoulder and broken a handful of bones, in his hand. When the wolf flashed some fang, Stiles had knocked his head against a brick wall hard enough to leave an indent.

He wasn’t sure if the wolf was dead or not, but he knew he and his little pack wouldn’t be getting up any time soon, and he sent a text to a friend on the state magic council. They’d make sure the wolves got taken care of. With that done Stiles had turned to find Jackson had been prepared to put himself in front of his friend, but was staring in a mix of confusion, disbelief, and maybe a pinch of awe.

They got Danny home, and Stiles had just mentioned that the school he got sent away to had been for magic users, and that they happened to teach martial arts to children that had trouble controlling their powers when they first manifested. Control over the mind and the body, or some shit like that.

It worked, so he kept up his training, and in fact went to various martial arts gyms to keep up on said training. That seemed to open a whole new door, and Jackson for once seemed actually interested in Stiles. They started watching superhero movies together, and the fact that both of them worshiped wonder-woman as a kick ass female goddess helped things along even more.

It was right around the time that he begrudgingly could admit that him and Jackson were friends, that a couple of things happened. The first was Jackson and Danny confessed to Stiles that Jackson was a werewolf, and both of them were officially members of a local pack.

Apparently the pack was well established, but had some issues with changes in alpha a while back, so despite being a fairly large pack, they didn’t have an emissary. They didn’t have an emissary, and Danny and Jackson had convinced the pack, and their alpha, that Stiles was awesome and that they should give him an interview for the emissary position.

Stiles didn’t tell them that it was a lost cause, he didn’t tell them that he was a dark spark, because he couldn’t, he had actual friends and how was he supposed to tell them that he was tainted by something out of his control.

Jackson only seemed to be his friend because he thought Stiles was bad-ass, and that image would definitely be ruined if he even knew some of the details of what had made Stiles go dark.

He told them that it wasn’t likely that their alpha would be interested once they met Stiles and saw all his test scores. He mostly hoped that he would convince them that he wasn’t a danger to his friends and he hoped the alpha didn’t try to get him to leave the territory, or worse, tell the Hales about the unaffiliated dark spark in their territory. Somehow Danny had him scheduled to meet with the Alpha a week later. There was apparently some drama that meant the alpha wouldn’t be available until then.

At twenty-five, Stiles for the first time in his life had an interview for an emissary position, and even though he knew it wouldn’t work out, it made something inside of him ache. It had been over a year since he even looked at Finding Roots, in fact the app had logged him out on his phone.

He knew if he was going to be considered for the position, he should show up with everything they needed to know on him. He’d wait to give the alpha the information in person so that he could run some damage control. He decided to update some of his information, he had mastered a few more levels of warding, so that would look good surely. He laughed at himself even as he hit the save button, feeling like an idiot, feeling like he was insane, because at this point he should just accept that he was never going to be an emissary.

Climbing into his bed, he had pulled out his laptop, intent on finding one of his mind consuming tasks from the summon it app. He was just in the process of sleuthing through a mountain of bullshit for even a grain of truth when his notification sound went off. He moved to grab his phone quickly, nearly crying because he had been sitting in the same painful position for so long his body didn’t agree with the sudden movement.

He ignored it in favor of grabbing his phone, the constant worry that his dad might have gotten hurt there when he got any sort of notification. He stared at the message, sent to him through his email, the email he set up exclusively for the Finding Roots app.

This had to be a mistake. There had to have been some error or something, because what he was reading did not make any sense. A pre-made message, where the system only allowed you to fill in certain blanks was sitting on his screen. He had thought he would never see this: 

_Mieczyslaw S. we are excited to inform you of a compatibility match! The Hale pack would like to arrange an in person interview on Thursday at 5:45 p.m. GPS coordinates available the day of the meeting. Would you like to confirm that you received this message? Will you be/not be able to attend?_

It definitely had to be an error, there was no way the Hale pack was actually considering him. Not with either of his two red flags. Still, some part of him refused to just ignore the opportunity. Due to the way the system was set up, he couldn’t directly contact whoever was behind the message, and even if there was some mistake, it would be so rude not to show up in person to get things sorted.

His finger hovered over the select button for a response, and after at least five minutes, he hit the button and then hit send. He felt like he might puke when his phone sent him a notification with the GPS coordinates, because he had just agreed to meet with the most prominent pack in possibly the country, but definitely the west coast.

Before the incidents leading to his spark going dark, he had strived to get into this pack. To be everything they might ever need. Because his father had admitted to him, over the phone after he had been taken away, that his mother had been a spark too, and before she had him, she had been one of their emissaries.

Apparently his mother had loved it, but couldn’t keep the position when she used up all of her spark to save him after an accident late in the pregnancy. His mother had sworn she never regretted the decision, at least his father said as much. His father was convinced of that.

There was no way such a big and powerful pack would be interested in a dark spark, especially when they likely had a reputation to keep up. Most long standing packs that were forced to get a new emissary were sticklers for an exemplar record, even if it meant taking someone with lower test scores and lower magic scores.

Stiles couldn’t blame them, but some part of him, a part he had thought had withered away and died, was dancing and joyful. Some part of him thought that maybe, just maybe, his luck had changed, and maybe this wasn’t a mistake.

As he looked up the address and found it was the Hale building, the massive tower in the middle of town that was at least twenty stories above anything else ever build there, he realized this was actually happening. He had an interview with the Hale pack, to be their emissary. Eyes widening Stiles realized he had an interview and he didn’t have anything to wear to it.

He nearly had a panic attack, but then called Danny, “I don’t have anything to wear to an interview, what are you doing right now?”

Laughing Danny and Jackson ended up meeting him at the mall, and Stiles learned he truly did have terrible taste in clothing. His business partner even made a few jokes that his taste in clothing was as much of a disaster as his love life, and variants of that.

When Stiles stepped out with another combination that was not alright together Danny had thrown a tie at him, “Are you sure you’re not uber straight, because I have never heard of another gay or bisexual man who couldn’t at least match a single suit to a decent and matching tie.”

The bisexual had been added with a mocking edge to his voice that sounded more like something he would hear from Jackson then Danny. It was Stiles’ go-to response when Danny gave him shit for the way he dressed.

Suddenly Jackson dropped his jaw, sucked in a gasp, then sputtered, “Wait, are you two dating or something? You never told me you were gay!”

Both men looked at Jackson like he had lost his mind, and Danny spoke slowly, “You’ve literally seen him make out with a dude before at the jungle, how is him being gay a surprise? Also, I love Stiles as a friend, but no, we will never date, no offence Stiles.”

Letting out an awkward snort and giving an even more awkward wave of his arm, “None taken, that would just be too weird, I mean, if I had a brother, I imagine that relationship would be like ours, and I’m not into that sort of kink either, so no dating between us, thank you. Why would you ask that? Again I’m going to cite what Danny said, you’ve literally seen me kiss some other dude in front of you, what makes you think I’d do that if me and Danny were dating?”

Jackson managed to not make himself look like a jackass, despite his fumbling’s. A half an hour later the two finally seemed to agree on which suite and which tie were perfect for him, and promised him it was the kind of outfit he could wear for so many other things when he about had a heart attack at the price tag.

Neither of his friends had ever really worried about money, even if Jackson had lent Danny the money for the business, that was just because his parents hadn’t been as supportive of him opening his own business, not because they couldn’t lend him that kind of money if he needed it. Stiles doubted either man had ever lived off top ramen, not even while in college.

It was tricky the next day to keep his suit and tie ready to go, and to keep his two friends from seeing it or him in it. It had been a close call, but he arrived ten minutes early to the location, and went straight up to the desk before realizing that he didn’t know what to say.

The woman at the desk gave him a forced smile, but her eyes looked like she was planning his untimely demise, “Can I help you?”

Sucking in a calming breath, that wasn’t as effective as he hoped it would be Stiles went for it, “I have an appointment at 5:45 to meet with…”

She let out a huff, “Are you the one with the really weird name? If so what letter does it start with?”

Blinking Stiles realized for the first time that his application had his first name, his real first name, listed. It had been an ode to his mother, she had named him after the last great spark of his bloodline, and she had sworn it was a name that had meaning.

He thought it was a horrible name, so he let out an honest laugh at her question, “Yeah, my mom had a terrible sense of humor with that one, it starts with an M, Mieczyslaw, kind of like Mischief.”

She looked him over and asked, “You’re not secretly just trying to knab yourself a Hale for a mate are you? Because the last five we saw today were.”

He’s not even sure what sort of expressions his face showed at that, but he shook his head, “Oh God no!”

Then realized what he said and nearly covered his mouth, “I just meant to say that I’m just super excited to be an emissary and I would really love to be an emissary to the Hale pack specifically and it’s not exactly against the law to mate an alpha and still be that alpha’s emissary, but I definitely would rather not be put in that sort of position, not that I even think I can knab a Hale, or this position, but…”

Some of the hate seemed to leave her eyes as she gave him a smirk, “Oh your socially awkward, this is going to be amazing.”

She hopped to her feet and came around, waving her hand to a security guard, then gesturing for him to follow her, “Alright, long elevator ride so I’m glad you aren’t wearing some God-awful perfume like the last girl.”

Tensing up at that Stiles tried not to assume the worst, but his brain to mouth filter still hadn’t fully developed, it was why he could never get an outstanding grade in the treaties category, “An emissary should know not to wear any sort of strong perfume, or cologne for that matter. It might just be it slipped her mind, but allot of hunters use that trick.”

Realizing what he just implied he fumbled, “I’m not trying to imply that someone I haven’t even met is a hunter, I’m just saying that there is a reason it’s not recommended to wear strong artificial scents, it can cover most other scents, so it can confuse wolves, especially newly turned wolves, and maybe I should just shut up now.”

The blonde’s smile grew a bit more, “Please don’t feel like you have to on my account. You’re the least annoying applicant Peter’s brought in today.”

Stiles felt like an idiot just blinking at her in shock, but when she started to shift a bit, he realized his brain to mouth filter had finally kicked back on, “I think that might be the first times someone’s implied I’m less annoying than other people, because if you ask any teacher or class mate or even the majority of my previous coworkers they’ll tell you that the babbling and sarcasm are enough to drive anyone insane, not to mention pop culture and nerd culture references. That’s basically the only ways I speak.”

If anything his words just seemed to make her more pleased, “Coworkers? I don’t think a single one of the applicants before you had ever had a regular job before.”

He rubbed the back of his neck and looked at the exceedingly slow climbing numbers, “Well I don’t know about the others, but yeah, I have had regular jobs, and magic jobs, though let’s be honest the regular jobs normally pay better. Well there are some magic jobs that would pay better, but I do have some morals, and I also like my bodily tissues as they are, and would rather not part with them if possible.

"Is this part of the interview? I mean, obviously you’re a beta of the Hale pack, higher rank despite being more recently turned, maybe in the last five years, so you could get a good gage of who is going to treat turned wolves, females, and obviously just other wolves besides the alpha, differently, or poorly. Despite the supernatural community trying to keep up with the times, there are still allot of magic users that are still super backwards.”

Tilting her head slightly to the side she gave him an assessing gaze, “We’ve had interviews going this whole week and no one’s figured that out. Half the applicants haven’t even made it to Peter’s office. Hey Peter, this one might actually be smart.”

She made a point of looking at one of the cameras and Stiles felt his eyes widen, “I mean, obviously I’m not an idiot because of my test scores, but that seemed pretty obvious. No offence or anything.”

She just grinned and Stiles felt his stomach jolt as the elevator started to speed up in it’s ascent, “Up until you showed up it seemed like the higher the test scores the more stupid they were in person. It’s like they couldn’t translate.”

Giving a nod he tried to convey his understanding, “There is a big difference between knowing something on paper and then being able to apply that and show your practical understanding of it. They have a lecture on that every year at the magic conference and yet very few people ever seem to go or understand that.”

Suddenly frowning in confusion the blond asked, “Magic conference?”

Stiles grinned at that, “It’s like a mix between comic-con and a science fair for magic users. They have them twice a year, though the one in the fall is normally abroad. This last year it was in Finland, and I considered selling a kidney to get the VIP tickets. It would have been worth it too, I just missed seeing an alchemist blow up the entire stage as he tried to use a botched formula to make diamonds. If it weren’t for the wards they put up before the show the whole country would probably be turned to ash.”

When the girl actually seemed interested he grinned, “I can give you the URL if your interested in looking into them. Some of the panels are hit and miss, but even just going to the shops and seeing ogres trying to haggle the price of enchanted sea shells with itty bitty fairies is worth the twenty bucks for general admission.”

They had reached the top of the building, the very last number, but the blond grabbed his phone when he pulled up the site he had saved to one of his side screens on his phone. She led the way even as she sent herself the entire URL through an email.

She seemed pretty excited, but then right before she was going to hand the phone back it started to ring, and a picture of Jackson with a snot bubble coming out of his nose as he snored with his mouth open, popped up on the screen, and her eyes went wide, “You know Jackson?”

She stopped moving forward, and Stiles winced, “Shit, yes, let me just make sure that’s not an emergency, last time he willingly called me our friend Danny’s abusive ex showed up.”

He snatched the phone out of her hands and answered it immediately, “What’s wrong?”

There was a huff, and Stiles could hear the muted frustration in Danny’s voice, “Stiles, why would you assume something is wrong? Now I owe Jackson twenty bucks.”

Letting out a groan the spark grumbled, “Seriously is something wrong, cause if not can I call you back a little bit later?”

Realizing that Stiles wasn’t laughing and then hearing his words, Danny must have realized this wasn’t a joking moment, “yeah, but you better call me.”

Danny hung up a second before Stiles could hit the red button, “Sorry about that.”

When he looked up he jumped, about coming out of his very own skin. The blonde beta wolf was no longer alone. Her and the stupidly attractive man standing next to her were staring at him with an odd look. He couldn’t piece it together, and before he could the girl let out a laugh and stuck out her hand, “Erica Reyes, though it’s soon to be Mrs. Boyd, glad I was the one here to meet you.”

He hesitated momentarily, tried to play it off as surprise (he was just surprised), then took her hand holding his magic back and without thinking said, “Stiles Stilinski, though that’s technically a nickname, I implore everyone to use it. It was really nice to meet you Erica.”

She grinned even brighter as she shook his hand, and then she was darting back towards the elevator, calling out over her shoulder, “Have fun with that Peter, I’m sure Derek is going to be ecstatic.”

He watched her go with confusion, and when he turned back to look at the handsome man, who really hit some boxes for Stiles, the spark had to shut down that train of thought real quick. He suddenly really understood why Erica asked that earlier, “Hi, I’m Stiles, you must be Peter Hale.”

Slate grey, with hints of blue, eyes looked him over like they were reading into every aspect of his life, “Correct, this way,” suddenly the man had a hand at the small of his back and was leading him forward and into the biggest office Stiles had ever seen at the end of the hall.

The desk alone was bigger than Stiles and Danny’s office space combined. The massive wall of windows overlooking the town and the preserve was equally showy.

Peter all but pushed him into a too comfortable chair, and then instead of going around the desk and giving Stiles that bit of distance Peter sat on the edge of the Desk about as close as he could to Stiles, “So, I’ll cut to the chase, the agency running Finding Roots assured us that your application was not a mistake and that you did not mark us as red flagged, but I find that hard to believe with your scores and skills. So why are you here? Why hasn’t another pack snatched you up?”

As he spoke he grabbed a file with Stiles’ real name on it, written in handwriting almost too perfect to be real, and Stiles couldn’t help himself from opening to the front page, where he noticed there was a missing red X right away, right there at the top of the page, “Right, well this would be the reason. I had a feeling it was too good to be true, but yeah, there must have been an error or something, because there should be a mark there at the top, first question.”

Peter’s eyes widened slightly, but before Stiles handed over the paper he noticed something else, “Oh, and I’m not a druid, it looks like this first page is a total glitch, I mean those scores are way off too.”

With some hesitance Peter took the file back, and just for good measure Stiles pulled up the app he hadn’t logged out of yet, and showed Peter the first page on his, “And that’s why no pack would even consider me as an emissary, I’m sorry I wasted your time, there wasn’t really an option to send a message back asking if it was an error, you know?”

Stiles was expecting the wolf to take one look at the red X by spark and start pushing said spark out the door. Instead the man raised an eyebrow, “A spark? And these scores, you weren’t kidding, they are way off. If I had seen these scores I would have known there was an error. You do realize that the Hales aren’t like other packs don’t you? You seem too smart not to known that, not to know why we have been having such a hard time finding an emissary. Still I don’t see anything here indicating why you wouldn’t have your pick of packs to choose from.”

Peter scrolled through the other pages, but they must have been the same because he barely skimmed them instead of reading them like he had the first page, though he did pause a few times at the comments.

When he handed the phone back Stiles clutched it tightly, “People see Dark, and they see that I’m flagged for magical outbursts, and that’s it I’m untouchable. I’m not sure why the Hale Pack would accept anything less than the best of the best, unless your referring to how they made their fortune, which would be a stupid reason considering all packs have blood money, the Hales are just more honest about where theirs comes from.”

Those too pretty eyes widened ever so slightly, and Peter seemed surprised by what he was hearing as he tilted his head ever so slightly, “Your serious? You have no control over whether you power glows brightly. And yes, most of the best candidates are put off by where we get our money, or by the fact that we nearly lost everything in a fire.”

Feeling himself bristle, he couldn’t cut the venom from his tone, “A fire started by the Argents. Why would that matter?”

Now the wolf was smirking, which was not at all what he was expecting when he all but snarled at an Alpha, “They’re hunters, that’s all others need to know to stay far away. That and we clearly weren’t responsible enough if we allowed our Pack Den to be attacked like that.”

Crossing his arms, still clutching his phone, knuckles white, Stiles did a better job at controlling his voice, if only just, “You’ve got to be trying to goad me. Those fuckers are psychopaths and monsters, not hunters, and they took advantage of the momentary lapse of an emissary to power the wards. Plus they had someone who had been let in, so even some of the best wards in the world would have been useless.”

Surprise wrote itself across Peter’s face again, “You know allot more than the general public does about that.”

It was somewhere between a statement and an accusation, “You did hear me say my last name was Stilinski right? My dad was the lead deputy on the case, which was probably a mistake on the departments fault, allot more probably would have got done if someone else had been put in charge. Especially when seeing the pictures from the fire in the newspaper triggered another really bad episode for my mom, right after she had just been released. Even out of her mind she realized that she was partly to blame.”

Peter was deathly silent, and he seemed to be searching for something in the spark’s eyes, “Are you saying… are you saying your Claudia’s child?”

Stiles gave a pained grin, “In the flesh.”

Running a hand through previously perfectly groomed hair, Peter shook his head, “How is she? We never… she changed her last name, and made sure we couldn’t trace her, so I understand if she doesn’t want us to know about her life or anything but, she was like family to us.”

Feeling like cold stones were dropping to the bottom of his stomach Stiles had to fight not to let his eyes water, “Oh, I’m sorry, I always just assumed the pack knew, but after she gave up her spark so she could save me, she got sick. It didn’t get really bad until a year or so before the fire, and then after, well she died about six months after. She regretted that she gave up her spark and lost her ability to be an emissary for the pack more than anything in the world.”

Peter looked like he had punched him in the gut, though the spark had a feeling if he had been punched he would not be showing such an expression. Wolves tended to have an exceedingly high tolerance when it came to physical pain.

The man pulled off his likely ridiculously expensive golden tie and took a seat in the chair next to Stiles, “I’m sorry to hear that, you have my very belated condolences. Last I saw your mother she had just started to have the hormonal changes that meant she was pregnant. The whole pack had been furious, but she said she was going to run off with the father of her child and get married. She said she couldn’t be happier and would be taking a few months to enjoy their honeymoon. I never saw her again, where did all three of you end up?”

Wincing Stiles rubbed the back of his neck, “I’m not sure how she managed this, but we lived in Beacon Hills, my dad and I sort of still do, though my apartment is in neutral territory so I’m not encroaching on your land or anything. I think she did some magic with my dad’s spark. He had a decent one but it was weak. She never went into it in any of her journals so again I’m not sure how she managed it.”

A sad sort of grin, just the barest of upturned lips, took over the man’s face, “If anyone could do it, Claudia could. She was a remarkable magic user, accomplishing some almost unbelievable feats. Do you take after your mother in that regard, obviously you got a great deal of her good looks?”

That had him fidgeting in his chair a bit with nerves, face getting hot, “Thank you? My dad says I do, but he sort of has to say that and he’s never understood half of the things I studied to become an emissary. I haven’t found a spell or ward I can’t do yet, so I’d like to think I’m a passable magic user.”

Peter seemed to already be shifting gears, and the younger man could practically see him storing away his sorrow for a later date, “You did mention that, and I’d be very interested to see some of your work. I have no doubt it would be fascinating. Have you put up many wards?”

Stiles let out a snort, then tried to cover it with a cough, “Do you mean many as in multiple locations or many as in one place I’ve essentially been trying to make the safest place on earth, because the answer is yes, though the first is less true than the second. My apartment, my dad’s house, my work, my dad’s work, I even put some up around my friend Danny’s house the other night, and I have done a few wards on contract. My apartment has the most extensive warding on it only because I practice wards for other locations there first before I place them in other locations. If you wanted to stop by sometime to take a peak I’m sure that could be arranged.”

Nothing that had just come out of his mouth had actually been thought out. If he had thought it out, there would be no way in hell that Stiles would have essentially invited one of the richest men in the world (like Bill Gates rich) to his shitty apartment. Still there was a moment where he dismissed his fears because there was no way Peter was seriously considering him, even if he knew his mother and wasn’t making a big deal out of his red flags and hadn’t just sent him on his way. Then Peter let out a hum, “That sounds like a phenomenal idea, I’ll get my coat.”

Eyes widening Stiles sputtered, “Wait, you want to go right now?”

He received a nod, the man grabbing a coat that looked like it might cost more than double Stiles’ rent, and being ushered to the door even as the man seemed to ask, “There couldn’t be a better time could there? Unless you have something to hide?”

Bristling at the insinuation, but also kind of wondering if it had been intentional to make him do just that, but still being pissed off anyway, “Seriously, what is that even supposed to mean? Also yeah, I would like to hide my dirty dishes and possibly other uncleanly situations I’m not entirely sure on, but if you’re going to be a dick about it you deserve to potentially get hit with the smell of two week old laundry.”

A bark of a laugh sounded from the man as he pushed Stiles into what appeared to be his own private elevator, “Oh you are a spitfire, not many have the courage to call me out on my less than ideal manners. Now tell me what are your thoughts on the druid circles philosophy of nature’s balance?”

Stiles’ immediate response was, “it’s complete bullshit” but then he got a raised eyebrow as if encouraging him to go on. By the time he was being pushed into the back of an SUV Stiles was halfway through the verbal equivalent of a twenty page thesis paper on just how idiotic that concept was and how the druids used that to try and give themselves a moral high ground to do what they want even if it’s hurtful or dangerous. He was even citing sources and bringing up counter arguments just so he could slash them to pieces.

It wasn’t until Peter was encouraging him to buckle in that he realized just how stupid he was being. He had just gotten into the back of a non-descript white SUV with a known mobster and was letting him basically get his seatbelt in the latch of the back seat. The car was literally running and had shady dark tinted windows on both sides, and the curly haired man in the front seat raised an eyebrow, “I wasn’t expecting company when you told me to get the car.”

Peter ignored the man’s comment, “Would it be easier to give directions or an address?”

Glancing between the driver and Peter he asked, “Who are you actually asking that question to?”

The driver snorted, “Why don’t you give me an address and if I know the area you can get back to your entertaining rant?”

Struggling not to spontaneous combust from sheer embarrassment (he was a spark, it probably could happen) Stiles gave the address, and then quickly started giving directions because it was clear neither man knew the area. When they finally turned into the cracked and pothole ridden parking lot, both men looked a little ill at ease, and Stiles had finished his rant, so he rolled his eyes, “It’s actually a bit nicer on the inside, and it’s super cheap, so no complaints. Your here to see warding not to judge the neighborhood.”

As if to confirm the neighborhood was questionable there was the not so distant sound of what had to be a gun going off, followed swiftly by police sirens.

Stiles was surprised when the driver locked the car and followed them into the building, but then again, protecting a pack member was more important than potentially getting your expensive car jacked. He ignored both the men’s even more horrified looks when they got into the hallway leading down to the potentially dangerous and likely not to code stair well, “If I were in different company I would warn you I live on the tenth floor, but I’m assuming neither of you will even notice how steep these stupid stairs are.”

They did not notice, and if Stiles weren’t in pretty great shape himself, he would have been huffing and puffing by the time they reached the slightly nicer hallway that was the tenth and final floor. There were skylights that kept this floor super bright, and since nobody wanted to climb that many steps, it tended not to have any traffic that wasn’t Stiles or his only other neighbor on this floor. There were two other apartments on this floor, but they were essentially maintenance storage. He could tell the wolves were a bit less stressed out once they got on his level, and he led them to the very last door at the end of the hall. They were surprisingly patient as he undid the four locks he had on the door, and when they stepped into the room they looked shocked.

Stiles was actually pretty proud of his apartment, because it was cheap, but once you got inside it, it was actually a really nice apartment, nothing too crazy, but nice. It was a studio style apartment, so everything was really open, and the loft with his bed on it was designed over the bathroom, so the main living space had really tall ceilings.

It had come with a couch that once Stiles had cleaned it, had turned out to be just as nice as the apartment. He had a fairly large dining table, one that could seat eight reasonably, which was currently overrun with tombs, scrolls, notebooks, various spell ingredients, and his laptop, the last of which was the only item not left open. On the other side of the table there was a big white board with information on the only two jobs he was working at the moment.

The real gem of his apartment wasn’t the skylights or the big windows that meant it got allot of natural light. No it was the kitchen, a kitchen that while a little tight, was easily HGTV approved. Marble counters, backsplash, fancy looking. Considering Stiles abysmal budget and what was available in Beacon Hills, he’s really proud of his little diamond in the rough. It might not have very good AC in the summer, and the windows barely opened a crack, there were scratches in the wood floor, but Stiles liked it. Also did he mention it was really cheap.

The two wolves stepped in with a bit of surprise and confusion, Peter immediately looking about and asked, “Where are the wards?”

Rolling his eyes, Stiles waited until he closed the door to snap his fingers allowing the various runes and wards to become visible. The entire apartment flooded with more light, as each line, each rune, looked like a golden lightbulb that had been painted over with dark blues, reds, and greens. Some spots had cracks where the gold shown through, while others seemed almost ominous with their darker glow. There were easily a hundred thousand runes, covering huge portions of the wood floor, the walls, the door, there were even a handful done on the ceiling, though those were only above the loft where he could actually get to said ceiling.

With a sort of ta-da gesture Stiles spoke, “And here are the wards.”

Awe was an expression Stiles hadn’t really seen in regards to his work, not that he really showed others his work, but still. The driver was spinning about like a kid dropped into a theme park, while Peter’s was more subtle, but also more calculating. The older man took in details, seemed to make mental notes, even as the curly haired driver asked, “What even are all these? Why would you need all of these?”

Letting out a huff Stiles pointed to one section of runes on his ceiling, “Those protect this place from lightning, tested and true thanks to good old ben franklin. Those next to them protect the place from leaking and water damage.”

Pointing to a series of red runes in the kitchen by the stove, “Those protect against fire, explosions, heat damage of any kind really.”

Now a green series on one wall, “Those do gusts of wind, plants, stuff like that, essentially mother nature, which includes earth quakes, that part was one of the hardest.”

Stiles took a breath and pointed to a series on the door, “No one I don’t want, don’t allow, in my space can enter, and they can’t enter if they intend me, the inhabitant of the space harm either. The ones on the door are keyed into this apartment specifically but allot of these carry over to the whole building. There hasn’t been a single violent crime in this apartment complex since I finished some of these, though loud arguments still take place regularly, and I know there is some drug deals, possibly some prostitution, but if it’s between two consenting adults then I’m not getting into it.”

The driver was looking at Stiles like he had just given him the answer to the meaning of life, or something equally impressive, but it quickly soured, brows drawing together, eyes going cold, “Wait, are you saying these wards can prevent abuse and stuff like that, because if so why haven’t you shared it with the entire supernatural community?”

Crossing his arms and bristling at the comment Stile had to put allot of effort into staying calm, “It can in many ways, yes, and when I first came up with those runes, the warding system, I tried to share it, but the magic council, they knew I was a dark spark so they told me in no uncertain terms that they wouldn’t allow me to publish any of my work anywhere. I’ve shared it with everyone I know personally, and that’s all I can do without ending up dead by the council’s orders.”

There was more bite to his words at the end, and Peter made a dismissive gesture, “Isaac meant no disrespect. How long would it take you to redo all of these at another location, if you don’t mind me asking?”

Curly haired wolf looked suitably chastised, even slightly apologetic, even if he didn’t say the words. Stiles was glad he could put a name to the face, and he was even more glad that there was a change in subject, “Well, now that I’ve figured them out it wouldn’t take too long. A big majority of the wards and protections I could get up in a week, maybe longer depending on how big of an area you want to cover. Some of the deeper more extensive ones would take longer, they require allot more supplies and prep work, but again depending on the area, I could probably get the rest done in a month or so. It also will depend on the area too, access, what I’m working around, the moon cycle and certain ingredients, but no more than two months for certain.”

A smirk was pulling at Mr. Hale’s features, and Stiles had to ask, “Are you thinking about putting some wards up somewhere?”

If anything that smirk just grew, “Yes, but first I want to finish our interview. Honestly if it were entirely up to me I’d be having a contract drawn up as we speak, have you sign it before the end of the next business day so I could get it filed, but Derek is also an equal alpha to this pack, so we’ll keep your interview with him later this week.”

That had Stiles raising a brow, and also internally getting his stomach flipping about, because despite the man giving him the time of day he still hadn’t thought they would actually consider him. To keep from having a mind break, Stiles focuses on the less daunting part of that equation, “Are you saying the Hale pack is a duel alpha partnership?”

Both wolves tense, and the smirk fell off the alpha's face, “Yes, is that a problem?”

Shit, he didn’t mean for that to sound how these two obviously took it, “No! No, it’s not that, I just wasn’t aware, and obviously that is really uncommon. Alphas struggle to share territory let alone pack, but if the two of you are on finding roots than that means you’ve been established as co-leaders of your pack for at least a year. It’s got some interesting implications, in more ancient times some of the strongest most legendary packs were ones ruled by more than one alpha. Some think it reduces the chance of mistakes being made, having two heads at the helm also makes it more important to empathize with each other and by extension the pack. I just didn’t know that was the case is all.”

His babbling had both wolves relaxing and Peter gave a nod, “Good, now why don’t we head back to my car and I can go over the full list of interview questions the pack had prepared, hopefully that will be enough to win Derek over before that interview can even happen.”

Eyes going wide Stiles couldn’t believe what was being said, even as he snapped his fingers to hide the wards away, “Wait are you saying your actually considering me? You did catch the part about me being a dark spark and the magical counsel hating me right? Surely there are better candidates ready to kill for the position.”

Peter opened the door and lead Stiles out, giving him a moment to re-lock his apartment (they now knew it was paranoia and not just because of the shady apartment), but his hands were shaking. The wolves had the grace not to show that they had noticed, even when Peter answered simply, “Yes, yes, and definitely not, I’ve interviewed easily a hundred candidates and you’re the first that I haven’t wanted to throw out a window from sheer annoyance.”

That had Stiles sputtering as he finally turned, the others were already heading to the stairs, “Wait, you’re serious? I can assure you that annoying is like my primary character traits. You can ask just about anyone who’s ever spent much time with me and ninety nine percent of the time they will say I’m super annoying. I’m all babbling and sarcasm and too smart for my own good.”

The grin Peter flashed him was impossible to make sense of, but it reminded him of a shark, “Yes, you’re smart, and actually competent by what I just saw. Those are the two characteristics we’ve been unable to find in all the candidates so far, hell our last emissary couldn’t have even fathomed what you just showed us. Now can I start with some interview questions, and do you have some time, because they were originally intended to be spaced out over more than one interview?”

Swallowing past a lump in his throat Stiles gave a nod, “Go right ahead, and I have a clear schedule for tonight.”

He received a nod and then Peter dived right in, “Would you say you are a loyal person and if we make you our emissary will you be loyal to our pack?”

“Yes.” When that just got him a raised brow he figured they wanted to listen to make sure he wasn’t lying, “I am a very loyal person, and if I were to become your emissary I would be exceedingly loyal to the pack.”

There was a pleased expression being painted a crossed the alphas face, “Would you be willing to enter a blood contract or take a magical oath to have the position of emissary?”

It was obvious why he might ask that, some magic users were squeamish and allot of them wouldn’t want the risk what comes with potentially breaking a magical contract. “Yes, I’d be willing to enter a blood contract or take a magical oath. Honestly I think one or the other should be mandatory to become a pack’s emissary.”

They fell silent for a moment after that as there were some kids playing near the stairs, and it wasn’t until they got back into the car, and he was buckling in that Peter spoke again, “Isaac, to the winery I think, let the staff know before we depart.”

It was hard not to laugh at how snobby the alpha sounded, but thankfully he had his face under control before Peter looked to him and asked his next question, “Would you be willing to run with the pack on full moons, and yes, we have other members who can’t shift who accompany us?”

Stiles snorted at that, “Yeah, I’d be game for that, though I will likely fall on my face at least once if I’m actually running.”

He’d barely answered when the next question came, “Would you be willing to participate in pack bonding rituals, and would you willingly submit to Derek and myself as your alphas?”

That was a bit more tricky for Stiles, “I would gladly participate in any pack bonding rituals. I can’t promise to always submit to either of you if I’m going to take on the position of your emissary. It’s the duty of the emissary to act as counsel, and sometimes to do that we must stand our ground. So if I think either of you are being idiots, or doing something stupid that might compromise the pack, then I won’t just submit and shut up.”

He had spoken slower that time then he normally did, trying to think through his words before they left his mouth, despite it seeming impossible. Apparently he did a fairly good job because his potential new boss gave a nod of understanding and moved on, “As emissary, you might learn about some of our business that is less than above board, do you think that will affect how you interact and see the pack?”

He shook his head even before the question was finished, “No, that doesn’t really matter to me. I mean, even my dad, who’s the Sheriff is fine with having the Hales all but run Beacon Hills, you might do some illegal business but you tend to take out the trash and you do it in a way that doesn’t make his job harder. Though if anyone steals my curly fries I can’t promise I won’t see them in a different light though, that’s sacrilege.”

Isaac busted up at that, and even Peter let out a soft laugh that made him look like he could pass for Stiles age. Once Isaac finally cleared his throat and kept his laughter to himself, Peter moved on, “Why is it you want to be an emissary and more specifically why do you want to be the Hale pack emissary?”

Stiles shifted in his seat a bit, getting restless but trying not to show it, “Well, I’m not going to lie and say the money isn’t a factor, or the benefits, but I can say honestly that even if the money weren’t as amazing I’d still want to be one. If my grandmother was around she would tell you I was destined to become an emissary, it was written in my very name, but I’m not much for superstition.

"My mom had some journals my dad sent me a while after she died, and she talked about all the challenges and having to know a bit about everything, how it really pushed her to always keep learning and caring. That honestly sounds like a dream job. I love a challenge, and that being the case, that makes your pack probably the best for me.”

Realizing that didn’t sound great Stiles rushed to add, “No offence or anything, it just has to do with your pack territory. Dead center in your territory is one of the biggest intersections of ley lines and a magical nexus, and there is the nematon, believed to be connected to the tree of life. Add in your reputation as being a strong pack, and having one of the oldest bloodlines, and now dual alpha-ship, and that’s bound to lead to some challenges. No doubt you’ve faced more challenges in a year than most packs will face in a lifetime.”

From the front of the SUV Isaac huffed, “Well you’re not wrong there, and if you’re looking for a challenge, try having two born alphas lead a pack of fairly new turned wolves.”

Peter flashed red eyes and raised a brow, “That is a challenge. Most people run away from challenges because of the dangers that often accompany them.”

Letting out a breath, the spark shrugged his shoulders, “I come from danger magnets on either side of my family, and I’ve never had the good sense to run from something just because that might be easier.”

There was a moment where Peter considered him, before the SUV pulled in front of one of the really old, but really well maintained buildings on Main Street. A dark man in a crisp white shirt, and pressed black pants had a side door open and was waiting for them.

Stiles felt completely out of his element, the place looked like one of those places that took reservations months in advance. Dim lighting, fancy table settings, legitimate candles with actual flames. Even worse the menu was a mix of French and Italian dishes with names he didn’t actually know the translation for, and there weren’t even prices listed in the fancy cursive font.

They had barely sat down, in a back, private room, and Peter was ordering, “Quite as ever I see Boyd, I’ll have the special, obviously I’d prefer the meat rare.”

The waiter, Boyd, didn’t even write that down, he didn’t even have a notepad, and then Stiles realized he was looking at Stiles, who had no idea what he wanted, but also was pretty certain that he could not afford anything on this menu. Despite being kind of hungry he was about to just ask for a water when Peter spoke up, “As this is an interview and this is a restaurant owned by myself, your meal is on the house.”

That was generous and appreciated and after sputtering as much he tried to look over the menu to find something he knew. After about a whole minute where he grew more and more panicked, Boyd stepped to his side and turned to the back page, “Our tour of le monde features sample portions of all of our top dishes if your finding the options a little daunting, or if you had something specific in mind I could direct you to something that might satisfy whatever you might be craving.”

Relief came two fold, and Stiles gave a nervous grin, “That sounds wonderful, thank you I have no idea what most of this says.”

Boyd gave the smallest of grins back, and Stiles got the impression that was not a common feat, then Peter went and ruined the nice moment by saying, “we’ll have whatever wine pairing the chief recommends.”

Feeling suddenly self-conscious Stiles shook his head, “Sorry, but I don’t actually drink alcohol, I’ll just have a plain water if that’s alright.”

He got a nod from the waiter and a raised brow from Peter, who then leaned back in his chair. Stiles didn’t remember him taking off his jacket, but it made him nervous when Peter rolled up his sleeves a fraction, “I suppose we forget at times not everyone can drink the wines just for the flavors. Now I feel I must ask the question I’m sure you don’t want to answer, but it will be critical that we are aware of the details if you are to become our emissary. So if you don’t mind, could you tell me how your spark went dark?”

Fuck. Fuck his life, Stiles had not been expecting that question. Why hadn’t he been expecting the obvious question? Probably because he didn’t imagine he would even be asked a single interview question.

It took him a moment to get his thoughts to quite enough to ask, “Do you want like the summary or when you say details do you mean an in depth account?”

The man looked somber, “Now you see why I wanted to give you something to take the edge off, but the truth is the more in depth the better. Take your time, you’ve answered all the other big questions.”

It was a good thing Peter was being understanding because for a minute Stiles didn’t think he would be able to get another word to pass his lips. He hadn’t talked about it, about how it happened, not to anyone. It was in a vault in the back of his mind that sometimes broke out on nights when he didn’t go to bed too exhausted to dream. Eventually he just pushed some words out, “When I was still pretty young I met another boy my age named Scott, we were both the youngest children, and the only children who hadn’t hurt anyone who ended up in the Magical Maladies Home for children.”

Before he could push forward with more words Peter went a bit wide eyed, “How did you end up there? I thought it was exclusively for rehabilitating dangerous children.”

Right, he hadn’t really gone into that bit, and even though that wasn’t a fun story it was better than the main one, “Right, well when I was almost eleven, my mother died, and the trauma awoke my personal spark early. Then of course I inherited the family spark, because even though my mother used the last of her personal spark that only cut off her ability to access the family spark, it didn’t damage or deplete it, if anything it had grown really strong after not being unutilized for so long.

"It was just a day or two later that I got cornered and attacked by a group of bullies, and I got a pretty serious head wound right out of the gate. I don’t remember much of the attack because of that, so Jackson could probably tell you allot more about what happened then I could.”

Sucking in a breath he got back on topic, “That wasn’t the problem though, I mean it was a very serious incident and I nearly died, I know I came out of it with allot of broken bones. The thing was, when I woke up in the hospital, whether by coincidence or perhaps because the nurses were just so used to writing my last name next to that room number, I woke up in the room I watched my mother die in.

"It felt like I had just been there, just seen all the machines and equipment and people who had failed to save my mother, and then I was in the same place. I had a panic attack, and it came with a magical outburst. I blew up every light and most glass objects in the hospital. The council had called it a major incident and declared I was too much of a risk, too much of a danger to be allowed to live with essentially a human father. So I got shipped off to the hellhole.”

Peter was leaning towards him a bit now, his eyes searching, but Stiles looked away quickly because now that he was talking he just wanted to get it out there. He just wanted to blurt it all out there like peeling the band-aid off, “Scott was there because he was bit and turned in front of his piece of shit father, who happened to be an abusive drunk, but also happened to be a high ranking officer in the FBI. He wanted to expose the entire supernatural and ended up with a knife in his back. So Scott and I had a shit ton to bond over, and we looked out for each other.

“We were best friends and brothers, and I know neither of us would have survived that place if we hadn’t shown up on the same day. Even after we were allowed to leave, me to Uni and Scott to a pack his mother had petitioned, we stayed in touch, we gamed together almost every night, I spent weekends at his house near campus and him and his mom spent holidays with me at my dad’s house.”

It made him feel so bitter sweet to think of all those memories, and he realized he hadn’t even talked about this. Hadn’t even talked about his brother in years, “I thought we would be brothers and best friends forever, but then we hit sixteen, almost seventeen, and Scott got himself a girlfriend. Which was fine, it was good timing because I had got into the prep courses for the Emissary licensing and was starting to try and put all the spells my mom had mentioned in her journal to practice. I figured if we spent a little less time together we’d only grow more fond, or some bullshit. Except I essentially didn’t see or hear from Scott for almost a year.”

Just thinking about it made him angry, and he took a moment to calm himself down. Peter stayed silent, Boyd dropped off some wine for the wolf, some water for Stiles. The spark waited to start until Boyd had left the room, even though as a wolf the waiter probably heard every word, “Then suddenly Scott wanted to spend time together, wanted to game and hang out, just like old times. I figured it was because his girlfriend broke up with him, his mom told me she was relieved, that she didn’t like how her son was acting since they met. I didn’t question it, I was just so excited to have my friend back.”

Staring down at his hands, Stiles took a minute to compose himself, “After a month or so, Scott asked me to go camping with him over a long weekend. I was stoked, and I didn’t even question it when he gave me a cup of whisky. There was a combination of a poison and potion that would kill most people, but for a young spark, for me, it knocked me out, then paralyzed me in body and power. I couldn’t so much as lift a feather coated in mountain ash. Turned out Scott had been working with this Druid.

“A dark druid that had been bound, had lost most of their power. The Druid promised Scott everything he wanted. Promised he’d be the most popular boy in his school, that Scott would be prom king and the captain of the lacrosse team. He promised Scott that he would get his girlfriend back, and that she would love him and never leave him again. The druid promised Scott everything he wanted, all he had to do was help him with a ritual.”

“A bound druid can gain all of their power back, times three, if they just complete a ritual to turn a spark dark, at least according to this druid. The druid knew that I trusted Scott, and even when he was punching me, careful not to use too much of that werewolf strength, between my tears I tried to get him to stop. I tried to reason with him, tried to get it through his head that even if the ritual worked the way the druid wanted it to, things wouldn’t work out the way he wanted them to.

"Magic can’t make someone love you, lust and desire and obsession, easy, but love isn’t something that can just be forced on someone, and why would Scott want to be with someone who didn’t just love him on their own. When he started ripping out my finger nails, between my screams I begged him to stop, told him everything could be forgiven if he just stopped. Hours later, hours of torture and I told him we could still be friends, still be brothers, and meant it. Do you know what he said?”

Until he asked the question, both the wolf and the spark had almost forgotten the other was present. Peter hesitated to answer, “I could not even hazard a guess.”

There were tears in his eyes and he felt like an idiot, but Peter wanted the details, “Scott said he never wanted to be my brother, never wanted to be my friend. He said I was a stain, a byproduct of where we had met. For the next two hours he went through a list of various torture techniques the druid had given him, all the while telling me everything he hated about me. I took punishments and beating for him while we were in that hell hole, I gave him my food when we ran short, or when the older kids stole ours. I stitched up his teddy bear and I sang songs to him, and I would have died for him, and he hated me.”

Stiles looked down at his hands, and the fingernails that looked perfectly fine now, “It was that, those words that finally tipped the scales. The druid said at some point that I was going dark, kept saying it with glee, but to be sure I could never be mistaken for a regular spark, they kept trying all the different items on the list, careful to keep the ones that could easily kill me to the very end. Whips on my back, burns on my thighs, breaking my ribs, fingers, and toes. Whenever I’d start to pass out, they would tip me back and put my head under water for long enough that my adrenalin wouldn’t let me lose consciousness again.

"Scotty even brought some brand he made in shop class the year before. He said he was just doing it for the ritual, but he did it so easily. Scott didn’t hesitate even when the druid suggested something not on his list, suggested Scott violate me. Hell, he laughed when I cried and started begging him to stop again.”

Trying to subtly wipe away his tears, to keep his voice even Stiles paused for only a moment, this time his voice was more even, he had gotten through the worst thankfully, “Honestly the Druid made a couple mistakes with the whole thing. He assumed I’d be permanently paralyzed, permanently unable to get at my own spark. He didn’t think anything could effect that, but enough time had passed that about the time Scott about fell asleep on top of me, I finally got full power back on board."

"It was fairly easy to knock them both out with a spell, and then I teleported to my dad. He knew some guys on the force in that area, and it wasn’t very hard to get some serious charges brought up, when the whole ritual had to end with the druid eating my heart, attempted murder was a pretty solid charge, amongst others.”

Feeling something like relief Stiles gave a nod, “And that’s how I became a dark spark.”

Peter was impossible to read in that moment, but he was not silent for long, “You didn’t get vengeance, you just let the law do what it could? How do you know they won’t be released in a few years and try it again? Your friend was a minor, he could be out of prison already.”

That had a grin breaking out across Stiles face, “Oh no, I suppose I neglected the good parts, the parts that were all karma and that I only found out a little ways after the fact. See turns out Scotty boy had been doing some shady shit, had been so desperate to be prom king, and the captain of the lacrosse team, and to be Alison’s boyfriend, that he had been killing off the competition.

"The druid helped him, they called it practice for the main event. Turns out that brand Scotty used had been used on all the other victims too. So Scott will be serving multiple life sentences without a possibility for parole. The druid on the other hand, won’t be serving any more time in prison. There was a mix up at the prison, and he ended up in the gen pop, and it just so happened that someone had seen the news, had seen he was the mastermind behind killing, torturing, and raping children. The things he did to the corpses were next level bad. So as you can imagine he didn’t survive fifteen minutes after that mix up.”

Something like relief showed on the man’s face, but then there was a trace of anger, “I still wouldn’t let someone live if they did that to me, or someone I cared about.”

Feeling a bit weighed down again, his little bubble of joy from speaking of their downfall popped, “Yeah, if it had happened to someone else I knew, that I cared about, I’d have done some really nasty stuff with my recently darkened spark, earn the title even, but…”

He let out a sigh, running a hand through his hair, which he had almost tamed for the interview but no doubt it was a mess now, “I couldn’t do that to Melissa, and with the way things played out, Melissa and my dad are finally dating. She’s a wonderful woman, she’s the best soon to be step-mom a kid could ask for, and she makes my dad happy. Since she moved to Beacon Hills he’s locked up all the alcohol and he actually takes time off work to go out, and he does his hair, and it’s adorable and I love them both.”

For a moment Peter just seemed to consider him, and then the door was opening and Boyd brought in a feast of food. There was so much food Stiles didn’t know where to start, and based on the concentration of borderline raw meat, it was pretty clear this restaurant catered more towards the supernatural element. Or perhaps they assumed he was a wolf because he was with Peter. That being said, Stiles wasn’t sure he had ever tasted anything like it.

The food was good, though he suspected if he knew the price tag he would be outraged. They stayed mostly silent, speaking only of lighter subjects like various runes and spells, they even discussed the weather, Peter asking if Stiles had a heavier coat as it was supposed to really drop in temperature in the next few days.

When Stiles couldn’t eat another bite, there was still some food on his plate, something his father and Melissa would swear was impossible. Despite having told the older wolf more about that terrible time than he had anyone else, he felt comfortable and content when they dropped him off outside his apartment.

He was glad he wouldn’t have to try and catch a late bus. That night he didn’t even work on any of his projects, he just felt so full and warm and light. Peter had promised to talk to Derek and try to be present for his next interview. He was hopeful that his co-leader of the Hale pack would want Stiles as their emissary as well.

It was no surprise though, that after talking about those terrible things, that he barely got a few hours of sleep, despite turning in early. The nightmares made him more and more exhausted until at three thirty in the morning he gave up all attempts at sleep and started on one of his cases until his alarm went off. He normally snoozed his alarm a dozen times, so he ended up showing up to work really early for him.

Danny was clearly surprised as well, but then he saw the bags under his eyes, “Were you so worried about the interview that you didn’t sleep? I swear you don’t have to worry about Derek, you’re going to win him over no problem, it’s Peter you have to worry about.”

Stiles let out a snort and came clean. Danny looked somewhere between shocked, outraged, and slightly impressed, “I thought you said you wouldn’t get picked once they saw your test scores, but if they are high enough to impress Peter Hale than I don’t understand why you would say that.”

Right, Stiles hadn’t told his friend, and some part of him was screaming to lie and cover this up so that Danny didn’t hate him or betray him, “So, it wasn’t so much my test scores, but what came along with it on my application, which is them finding out I’m a dark spark.”

Danny apparently didn’t know what a dark spark was, and neither did Jackson who suspiciously came out of the back room wearing the same clothes as yesterday, minus the tie he was wearing, which belonged to Danny. Choosing to ignore that for now, and let them come to him when they were ready, again, Stiles did his best to explain first what a spark was (which was allot harder because Jackson seemed in a pissy mood) and then how a spark could go dark, without going into any detail of how he had been turned dark. He had already dreamed about it enough, if he spoke about it again he didn’t think he would ever sleep again.

The thing was, Jackson had gotten paler and paler, and finally when Stiles was about to ask if he was okay, Jackson asked, “Was it… was it me helping those bullies? I mean, we had sort of almost been friends in kindergarten and then we got put in different classes and I just wanted to fit in.”

Oh God, Jackson was about to cry and Stiles rushed to try and assure him, “Oh God no, no Jackson it was definitely not that, I mean, I did sort of have a panic attack when I ended up in the same hospital room that my mom died in just like three days before the attack, but that’s not on you. I don’t even remember the fight really, concussion and all, but I do know I was at no risk of going dark from something as mild as that. No, I didn’t get turned dark until I was almost eighteen, just a handful of months before I took my first emissary exam.”

Jackson seemed uncertain if he should go paler or be relieved at that, “Stiles, you had like three broken bones. I remember my dad was terrified when he heard the news. He was a prosecutor, so he knew it was a legitimate worry that I could end up in Juvie for what happened, and he would likely lose his position.

"Then there was the power surge and it was like everyone just forgot about you. Like, I didn’t even end up grounded or anything, and it made me feel awful and when I asked my parents why I wasn’t grounded they acted like I was crazy.”

Letting out a long sigh Stiles rubbed the back of his neck, “Yeah, the panic attack sort of came with a magical surge, and something big like that is really not good. The council was able to cover it up, the spell made almost everyone forget about the details that might lead to someone realizing the supernatural was real. That’s why I got shipped off to a magical halfway house that might as well have existed in a hell dimension. After years without another magical outburst, even when I got like awful punishments all the time, they couldn’t argue I was a danger anymore so I did get out before I turned eighteen thankfully.”

Something he blurted out must have not come out right because both of his friends were looking at him like he was a kicked puppy or something, and Jackson sounded like he still might cry, “That’s… that’s so fucked up.”

Then he was pulling Stiles into a hug, Danny joining in as the former spoke in his ear, “I’m so sorry, if I just told them to leave you alone…”

Without getting out of the surprisingly comforting hug Stiles snapped at him, “You likely would have ended up hurt too, and it’s not that big of a deal. It’s fine. If it hadn’t happened I wouldn’t have turned into a magical bad ass so it really is fine.”

If anything they just hugged him a bit tighter. They might have stayed like that for who knows how long if the phone hadn’t rung. Stiles was honestly relieved when he got sent out to work, he needed to keep busy or he was going to lose his mind. Thankfully, if Stiles was good at one thing, it was keeping busy. Between him taking the weekend shift, (they did them once a month for clients that couldn’t come in during the work week) and him working the three cases he had gotten from the stupid app on his phone.

He made a serious break in one, and ended up figuring out how it was that a really expensive watch got stolen. It had to do with fairies. He made absolutely no progress in tracking down the Nogitsune, but he might have found a clue as to why nothing would grow in a clearing in the woods where a coven of witches used to meet up for a book club they hosted out there.

He kept himself so busy, that before he knew it he was getting ready for his next interview, and this time was better and worse because Danny and Jackson were there. Both determined to make sure he looked presentable, but not like he was trying too hard. It was terrifying, almost as terrifying as it was to enter a coffee shop, owned by the Hales, which was closed except for just them.

By just them he meant a man in a leather jacket who had to be Derek Hale(there was a hotness gene apparently because both Hales were competing for sexiest man alive), and a girl who was working at the store. She had strawberry blond hair, and were he interested in getting himself a girlfriend she’d likely be interesting, but she wasn’t a wolf. She wasn’t human either, and it took him a solid minute to point at her and ask, “Banshee?”

She grinned and Derek Hale stood up and crossed his arms, looking less than impressed. Stiles tried not to panic, “Hi?”

The Banshee rolled her eyes, “Ignore his broodiness, what would you like to drink, it’s on the house obviously.”

Stiles winced, “I can pay for coffee.”

The younger Hale seemed to look even more murder-y, “Could you have paid for the dinner my uncle took you on?”

Blinking a couple times Stiles ran through his head what was being said and came up with a couple scenarios, “I let Peter buy me dinner because I was hungry and he picked a place I’m pretty sure would tap out my food budget for at least a week, and I really do not want to know how much that meal would have cost me, the thought alone is daunting.

"Since you are both co-alphas and both own the winery, I saw it as a shared expense, I am not trying to disparage you as an alpha, or treat you differently than I would your uncle. If you want to buy me coffee I’m not going to argue with you about it, but I don’t want you to feel like you have to, and I don’t want you to think that’s an expectation from me, because I do have a coffee budget at the very least, and I actually do order coffee from this place so it’s not like it’s going to mess up my entire budget for the month.”

When he finished babbling, Derek actually seemed to relax slightly. Still Stiles gave him a moment to think, and after a solid minute Derek spoke up, “I extended the invitation here, I want to buy you coffee.”

The girl behind the counter clapped her hands like she had seen a major play and it had moved her, “Oh my god, it’s been under ten minutes and you’ve translated Derek speak and got him to use his words, to say them out loud even. I’m so glad I got assigned today, and I really did not think that was a possibility. I don’t even know how to work half of these things, but when your alphas both make a request that is more of an order, what do you do?”

There was a faint blush on Derek’s cheeks, and he let out a low warning growl. Which did nothing at all, no one in the building thought that was a good warning. Stiles managed to bite back a snort, and instead focused in on what the beauty before him had just said, “If you don’t know the machines I can either order just like, regular coffee, or I could just make what I usually get myself. The machines here are basically the same as the ones at the coffee shop on my old college campus, though these look even easier.”

With a smirk the girl moved to one of the counters and lifted it up, creating an opening into the back with a gesture as if to say, be our guest. She watched him put together a drink with a raised eyebrow and when he turned Derek had moved up to the counter to watch as well. The girl grinned, “Do you know how to make a caramel macchiato?”

A grin creeping onto his face Stiles made the requested drink, and then when he handed it to a grinning banshee, Derek asked, “Can you do a vanilla latte?”

He got to work, calling over his shoulder, “You two are easy, I could do those in my sleep.”

When he handed over the offered drink, the girl stopped sucking on her drink long enough to hold out her hand, “Lydia Martin soon to be Whitmore, what do you want us to call you?”

Feeling like he had just been hit in the face with cold water, he hesitantly shook her hand, “Uh, just Stiles is fine, I mean, it might not legally be my name but it fits me and its easier and I’m just used to it.” He was babbling, which meant, despite him trying not to he couldn’t help but ask, “You mean like you’re going to marry Jackson? Do you know about Danny?”

The girl, woman, Lydia, raised one brow with a smirk, “Well Stiles, I’m impressed, the rest of the pack hasn’t caught on yet, what gave us away?”

He’s not sure what it is he’s stumbled upon but he also is pretty sure even the biggest idiot would have caught on by now, “You mean besides all the evidence of them fucking? Also, are you guys in like a poly relationship or are you a beard or what? Wait, you do not have to answer that, I just didn’t even know Jackson had a girlfriend.”

Lydia just seems amused by his questions, “Well, I did wonder where they were doing it and neither of them would tell me, I suppose I have my answer, it figures they would go to the one place the pack doesn’t. Also, we’re still working out the details. Danny is very much gay but isn’t against sharing and I am also willing to share if that is what will make Jackson happiest. It’s a very new arrangement and Jackson is still struggling with the idea of him being fully gay.”

With a grimace Stiles remembered where he had heard that before, “I forgot his dad has a solid pinch of homophobia.”

She gave him one more smirk, looked him over, then lifted the counter again, “Alright, why don’t you let our noble leader take the lead. I’m not a werewolf so I’m not going to hide in a nearby location and pretend that no one is listening in.”

Snorting Stiles gave her a thanks before taking his drink and sitting across from where the wolf had been sitting earlier. The alpha taking the seat again when Stiles started to sit. For at least two minutes they sat there, Stiles drinking his drink, before Derek seemed to find his words, “My uncle mentioned you have a very highly warded apartment that likely has taken allot of time. If you were to become our emissary would you be willing to move out of that apartment to live in the pack house?”

Setting his already half-finished drink on the table Stiles spoke honestly, “If the pack house is in California then yes, I’m more than willing to, though I do have certain standards when it comes to kitchens, like if there isn’t a functioning kitchen I can anxiety bake in then I’m going to lose my mind. I likely would keep the apartment for a while just to make sure I’ve got all the work I’ve done documented, but as much as I like my apartment it’s just a place. People are more important than places.”

He got a nod at the end like the alpha agreed, before Derek spoke again, each word forced out like he was fighting a battle with the preferred silence, “Are you comfortable with being scented? Will you be able to handle that happening most of the time?”

That had him grinning, “I’m definitely comfortable with being scented, even if it happens allot. It’s a sign of a healthy pack, and that I’m doing my job well, so I’d prefer it that way.”

Derek seemed a little surprised by that, but it was only there for a second before it was gone. It didn’t take as long this time as the question before, “Danny mentioned you both own a computer business together, will that interfere with your work as an emissary? Will you be able to put the pack first?”

Taking a moment to consider his words Stiles finished off his coffee, happy to have the caffeine settling his system, “The benefit to being self-employed, and of our business in particular is that we set our own hours, and our company hours are set around our lives, not the other way around. We’re at the stage where we are hiring a few people to take over the more time consuming tasks, so I won’t really need to put in hours, just check in and maybe the occasional job if I’m bored, though I probably wouldn’t be bored if I had something better taking up my time, such as being your emissary.”

For a moment Derek just considered him, then he shook his head, “You seem too good to be true.”

Stiles snorted at that, then realized it hadn’t been meant as a joke, “Oh I assumed you were joking. I’m a dark spark who’s had a magical outburst, and that’s just the magical red flags. I mean I babble and I can be super sarcastic. Also, I’ll be honest with you, if you decide you want to start making treaties with all the packs in the neighboring areas, your gonna need to find a different emissary because I might have managed to pass that exam but I know in practice I’d be far less diplomatic and likely put my foot in my mouth. I’m supremely socially awkward at times too, I mean, I’m twenty five and I have two friends, but if you tell Jackson I said he was my friend I will tell him your lying.”

Lydia snorted at that bit and Derek seemed to be fighting not to show even a hint of amusement, Stiles just went on, “Also I’m one of those people that when they get a problem or a task that they are interested in, I can become hyper focused and forget about things like eating and sleeping and personal hygiene. I’ve gotten better at it as I’ve gotten older, but I still have to set timers when I pull up cases like tracking down the Nogitsune, or I fall back into those old patterns. Not to mention if someone hurts those I care about I can be ruthless, to the point of questionable morality.”

Two questions came at him at once, “What’s a Nogitsune?” and “Care to explain your questionable morality?”

Both seemed curious about the other’s question as well so he gave a shrug, “It’s a kitsune evil spirt that feeds off chaos and sometimes strife, kind of like demons that only enter this world if someone makes a poor life choice and summons them. It caused all those power outages and electrical storms we have been having. If you want more information I’ve got a whole USBs worth of information. As for my questionable morality, let’s just say that Danny’s Ex won’t be coming around again any time soon, and nobody’s really looking for him either.”

Having paused in filing her nails Lydia gave a little hum, “Well that is a relief, and I would like that USB. Are you sure it was a Nogitsune?”

Stiles nodded, “Yeah, they aren’t fun, though this one has actually been pretty mild, which is why I haven’t found it yet. Normally they leave at trail of bodies and destruction in their wake, so it’s really an unusual case.”

Derek was frowning and looking really angry just then, but his voice had a different tone to it, “We’ve been trying to figure out the cause of all that for over a month with no luck. That’s part of why we’re allowed such freedom from the council because the Hale pack, for generations, parent and child, we've been guarding the nematon. It calls to the supernatural and is a source of power.”

Something about Derek’s words had Stiles brain going into overdrive. His thoughts running a hundred miles a second in each direction and finally piecing together a part of the problem he hadn’t even know was there, “Parent and child…”

Derek looked very confused and Stiles rushed to pull out his phone, “Can we pause this conversation for just a second, because I think I might know why we haven’t been able to track it.”

If he hadn’t run the Hale pack off before, this would surely do it, because he didn’t even wait for the alphas response, instead pulling up the number of the kitsune that had put him on the case. She picked up on the second ring, “Hello?”

Stiles dived into the deep end, “You said that the last Nogitsune that was called into this word was acting very erratic, and you didn’t feel this one currently on the loose get called in, but you can sense it’s in Beacon Hills, right where you dispatched the last one some time ago. Could the first Nogitsune have found some way to procreate, to have a child?”

The woman sucked in a breath, clearly shocked by the mere suggestion, but then she let it out in a gasp, “It’s host was a pregnant woman, it’s unheard of, but… that would make it half human, Spark, I cannot take the life of a human, it goes against our people’s code. If your suspicion is correct…”

Stiles let out a huff, “Don’t worry, I already am working on a plan, but it’s going to be super time sensitive, if this Half-Nogitsune actually kills an innocent before I can get to it, then I’ll have to figure out a backup plan, but it would really be better if plan A works.”

A sigh of relief sounded over the phone before the woman on the other side spoke, “Let me know if there is anything that I can do to help, any way to restore some of my honor.”

The Spark looked almost gleeful, “Could you send me a picture of the characters for the previous Nogitsune and one’s that are of similar age and wording meaning child or baby or young, ideally all three but Japanese is not my specialty so whatever you think would work there as a sort of summary place holder.”

“I know just the thing, I’ll send you a picture in a minute. Call me if you need anything else.”

Then she hung up and Stiles gave a sad grin, “Right, so if the calculations I did in my head are correct I really need to get this Half-Nogitsune before sundown, and I’m going to be cutting it close.”

Having gotten to his feet, trying to appear apologetic and not like his heart was being ripped in two grew harder when Derek asked, “You’re leaving?”

Running a hand through his hair he let out a sigh, “Yup, because if I’m right the whole world will be super fucked in less than twenty four hours if I don’t. I mean there is a chance it might still be fucked if I do, I mean this could easily go wrong and tear my body and soul to shreds, but I try not to think of all the nasty and bad outcomes there are from failed spells.”

As he finished speaking he made as if to leave and Derek caught his arm, or more accurately, he caught Stiles’ wrist, his hand just brushing over the skin visible where his dark sleeves ended. The thing was, Stiles tended to avoid skin contact. He had a very strong spark, and he had learned the stronger he got, the more he trained, the more he sometimes got in the way of empathic touch.

Now he could read a bunch of emotions, add to that, the fact that Derek was an alpha, a very strong alpha from a line of wolves that were said to be able to complete a full shift into their baser or spiritual form, depending on the text you were reading. Normally if he had a few seconds to prepare himself, it was no big deal, but he hadn’t been prepared.

Amid the virtual tsunami of emotions he couldn’t even brace for, he forced himself not to try and pay attention to any one in general, just let them pass around him like a mountain splitting a gale. There was so much overwhelming emotion, he almost didn’t notice the sudden burning of the patch of skin directly over his heart that he had always been very careful not to cover with any tattoos or magical markings of any kind. The hand not being held by the wolf went over his heart, and some of the emotions made sense, he hadn’t dissected them, hadn’t really picked them out before hand, but knowing what he was looking for looking back made it easier.

Clearly Derek had felt something too, or he just saw how shocked and dazed Stiles was. That second theory didn’t hold up when the wolf suddenly flashed Red eyes and all but ripped his shirt down to reveal, “Shit, it’s not supposed to happen like that, shit, this isn’t…”

He was three seconds from a panic attach when Derek shifted his shirt back like it was no big deal, only to reach forward and jerk Stiles shirt just right so that half the buttons popped off the top. Then he tugged Stiles’ shirt to the side. The spark didn’t even fight it, just looked down to see the two names written over his heart, in two very different handwriting.

Stiles wasn’t surprised to see it over his own heart, that was common with magic users, especially sparks. When they met their destined for the first time, if skin met skin then the words would appear. Blinking Derek also seemed to be taking in all the ruins and spell-work tattooed across his chest in all directions, with a large circle of clear space between the names and the rest.

When Derek released his shirt, he honestly seemed relieved, “Now what was this about a spell potentially killing you? Cause Peter and I are not going to be okay with that.”

Speaking of the Devil, Derek’s phone started ringing , and when he pulled it out it had the name Peter on the front before he answered it. Stiles didn’t have to have super hearing to hear what the man on the other end said, “What are you doing?”

Derek put it on speaker, “Stiles, our third, figure out it’s a half-Nogitsune demon thing that has been causing the weird shit lately.”

He paused to take a breath and Peter let out a groan, “That is not good, not good at all.”

Once he fell silent Derek added, “Stiles has a plan, but apparently there is a chance whatever magic he wants to use could tear his body and soul to pieces. I told him now that we have his apparently stupidly long name on our skin, we’re not cool with that risk.”

Obviously Derek was not expecting his uncle’s next words, “How big is the risk?”

Stiles couldn’t hide his smug grin from the alpha in front of him, but he did put it away quick enough it couldn’t be heard in his voice when he spoke, “Maybe a fifteen percent chance, but every other option I’ve thought of, every back up plan, is going to be at least a fifty percent chance of essentially destroying all life for hundreds of miles in all directions, or worse, so I’m going to go with the better odds, unless I come up with something better between now and when I finish setting up for the spell in the preserve.”

Peter sounded concerned, “The first electrical storm was almost six months ago, the last two were only three weeks apart.”

Nodding his head the Spark realized he needed to say it out loud, “If I can do this spell before sundown we should be okay, if not, we have about a week, at best.”

The Banshee was standing next to him now as she asked, “What happens in a week.”

The alpha on the other end of the phone spoke solemnly, “A rift will start to form allowing the darkest demons into this world, everything that normally needs a summoning will breach that gap and unleash hell on earth.”

He gave them a few seconds to soak that in, like five, before he asked, “What do you need to perform the spell? Tell us how we can help?”

Considering the spell carefully Stiles remembered one item he needed for the spell that he didn’t have at his apartment, “I’m out of grave dirt, I only need a pinch, but ideally it’s got to come from consecrated ground. Everything else I’m pretty sure I have at my apartment.”

There was some static sounds like movement and shuffling on the other end, “Alright, we’ll get the grave dirt and meet you at your apartment.”

Shaking his head Stiles rushed to try and explain, “I can’t do the spell there, there’s too many protections and I need to be surrounded by nature, and there’s a bunch more, but I know just the location to perform the spell, I can send you the coordinates.”

He ended up giving the coordinates over the phone, and then somehow Stiles ended up in the back of a very nice SUV. Lydia had been the one to point out that Stiles had walked into the café, she had seen him walking through the park across the road, so she knew he wasn’t parked nearby most likely. He hated to admit it, but he needed every second he could get.

Once they were in the car Lydia asked, “Can you tell us what kind of spell you’re doing?”

Stiles nodded even as he spoke, “It’s one of the oldest binding spells I’ve been able to find, and if everything works out, the half-Nogitsune won’t be able to access the powers of the other world, and more importantly, the otherworld won’t have a connection to him they can used to open a big ass doorway.”

Thankfully the rest of the short drive was in silence so Stiles could go over everything in his head, trying to make sure he had all the variables, that he hadn’t missed anything. Despite having practically memorize the entire book of spells the one he was planning to use was inside, he still made that his first task, pulling it off one of the cluttered shelves dotting almost every available wall.

He shoved some of his other projects aside to make a clear space to put items as he moved about the room gathering them. Derek and Lydia had both followed him up, the latter had not made it more than a single flight before she kicked off her shoes, but she had been determined to make it up. Stiles was pretty sure she would need to bleach or burn the little stockings she was wearing.

They both took in the space, and Derek asked, “Is it true you found a way to hide all the runes for your wards?”

Not stopping in his search of his precious stash of phoenix feathers (he had two and he ached to know the spell would destroy one) Stiles verified the door was closed before he snapped his fingers. There were some surprised sounds, and then he heard Lydia muttering under her breath a bit as she looked them over.

It was less than fifteen minutes after entering the apartment that Stiles started loading the vast arrangement of items into various carriers. If they weren’t individually already in a Ziploc bag, or a Tupperware, or a few more fancy magic containers, he put them in one and either loaded them into a backpack or a big duffle bag. He had basically gotten something from every corner of his room.

After doing one more run through of all the ingredients Stiles put a piece of notebook paper in to mark the page, before gently closing the old tomb. When he turned towards the door, Derek had grabbed the two bags as if they weighed nothing, and he gave the spark a look just begging for him to argue.

Stiles didn’t, but only because he didn’t want to put his book into a bag or risk damaging it by not holding it with both hands and arms, “Okay, to the preserve!”

Lydia put the coordinates in the GPS system while Derek drove and then asked, “Where do you get all of those ingredients. I’ve been wanting to do a few spells but have no idea where to even look to find any of the ingredients.”

Latching on to that because he needed to stop overthinking the spell, Stiles let loose his words, “Well there are some dark web sites that are super sketch, I normally avoid those but there are a few things that you can only find there. There’s also a few magic stores in the US, there even is a little one here in Beacon hills.

"By the way, when I say magic stores I mean the store is magic, and allot of time has allot of the stuff you might need, but you have no idea what your total might be when you check out. I one time got a basket full of herbs from thought to be extinct plants and all the store asked for was a dirty penny, while another time I ended up giving up my library card and all the cash in my wallet for a bit of enchanted string that I probably could have just made myself. I probably could have made it better myself too, but I was under pretty tight time constraints that time too. I could get you a list of sites and stores.”

After a single beat Derek spoke up, his voice gruff, “My mother always warned us away from true magic stores, said they were more dangerous than helpful.”

Letting out a huff of a laugh Stiles rolled his eyes, “Yeah, to werewolves it would be, to sparks and a banshee, not so much. Though I wound recommend not going in if you see another car in the parking lot. The store might not try to eat a banshee, but the other things that shop there might.”

Said Banshee looked a bit horrified by the thought, “I don’t think I want to go into a store that eats people.”

That got another huff from him, “Mostly just werewolves, the shops collectively have a distaste for them after one tried to burn one of them down, so sometimes they just sap their energy and don’t let them leave until their old and very much human. It’s about a fifty-fifty chance if you’re a were that you get out of a magic shop if you go in alone. You’ve got way better odds if you go in with a non-were, and way worse odds if you go in with another were. I think it confuses the shops when there is more than one entity inside them at a time.”

As he finished speaking they pulled into a dirt lot that was the closest they could get by vehicle. Somehow Peter had beat them there and had Erica, Boyd, and Isaac with him. Danny and Jackson were in the latter’s sports car pulling in next to them all. Honestly he was kind of relieved to see them, but he also didn’t have time to waste.

He gave them a wave and then started the hike to the clearing he had scoped out multiple times for this very purpose, this very spell. It was currently the only spell his mother had mentioned casting in her journals that Stiles himself had not attempted as of yet, but it was now or never.

Unlike when his mother cast the spell, he wasn’t going to be using a summoning circle to catch some weak little demon from limbo, no he had to do this with a half-human, half-Nogitsune that was already in their plane of existence. Which meant this would be allot more risky than when his mom did it, but hopefully the payoff would be better in the end, and more importantly, hopefully everyone would live to see tomorrow.

Danny and Jackson caught up to him, looking nervously at their two alphas, the latter asked, “Okay, seriously what’s going on?”

Lydia explained the situation like she was stating something as obvious as the sky being blue, and the two shared the oddest look before they both rolled their eyes. Peter frowned at one part Lydia had mentioned, “You’re going to bind a Nogitsune?”

There was so much disbelief and a pinch of confusion and fear in his voice. Stiles shook his head, “No, I’m going to bind a baby Half-Nogitsune that hasn’t killed anyone innocent yet, that’s a key difference there. I have yet to come up with even a half decent plan B, so let’s just hope this works.”

His best friend actually pinched his arm, and when he sputtered, Danny snapped, “Your always telling me that as a spark you have to believe in the magic for it to work, so stop saying you hope it works and start saying it’s going to work, say it as many times as you need to for it to feel like a truth.”

Stiles spent the whole rest of the twenty minute trek muttering, “This is going to work, this is going to work” over and over. After ten minutes he was starting to believe it, but because Jackson was grumbling about how annoying Stiles falsetto was, he kept it up in a fashion that was designed to annoy his other friend as much as possible. It was a nice distraction from his growing nerves.

Finally they got to the clearing, with a little pond and stream on the far end of it, taking up only a corner. Stiles tossed down a throw blanket he had grabbed on his way out of his apartment so that he could open the book and sit on the ground without ruining the two most expensive things he owned (at least the book and his outfit felt ridiculously expensive, he might have been over exaggerating).

Derek set his bags next to him and Erica asked, “Are we safe to be where we are at?”

Bending back slightly to look up at her he smirked, “Just stay behind me and you should be fine.”

Everyone else rushed to get behind him, and Stiles forced himself to completely block them out as he set up for the spell. Once everything was laid out in a very specific order, Stiles shifted so he could dig his fingers into the soft dirt on either side of him.

It wasn’t until he was already starting the first step that he remembered he should have changed clothes. Oh, well, Derek had already ripped off some buttons, and sacrificing a bit more of the fabric wasn’t that big of a deal if it meant not dying, or better yet, his dad and everyone he knew not dying.

There were gasps when a few runes glowed bright, tattoos turned to focused magic that burned through the fabric like nothing. Though the gasps could have also been from the rumbling and shifting and quaking as the dirt, the plants, the stones, the water from the pond, and even the clouds in the sky seemed to rearrange themselves in the clearing. When the glow of the runes faded from his skin, there was a massive and very intricate circle with at least a hundred runes etched into the dirt. There was also a seven-pointed star.

Just outside the circles at one point was now the water, at another point was now some rocks, at another was a cloud that seemed to float just below the tree-line, it’s shadow showing its location, and at another point was a bush. There were two points that did not have anything at them yet, but Stiles moved to place a gold nugget at one and a handful of candles at the other.

Once those were placed Stiles paused to double check a few of the ruins before looking at his phone to add some in a space around one of the circles. The characters didn’t match up with the rest of the ruins, but no one really wanted to try saying something.

That only grew more true as they watched Stiles place various items from his bag at locations that seemed almost random inside the circles. It was interesting that even with the floating low cloud, no breeze move the feather off the plate he set it on so it wasn’t getting dirty.

Most of the group ended up taking seats on a fallen log or a nice bolder at the edge of the clearing to watch. Derek, Peter, and Danny stayed standing, unable to sit while they watched intently. Just when they thought he was finished he moved to open the backpack and pulled out far more items than looked like would fit in the space. It wasn’t magic, he was just very good at stuffing.

Stiles poured some distilled water into a mini caldron and set it to float over the candles he lit with a snap of his fingers. He then proceeded to brew a potion that he was certain was difficult enough to make Professor Snape envious when Stiles finished.

He poured the contents of the cauldron into a goblet with gemstones and ruins all over it, then looked to Peter, “Got that graveyard dirt?”

Peter pulled out a Ziplock bag with a solid handful of dirt in it. Stiles snorted as he opened it, and literally just took a pinch of dirt that he then sprinkled over the top. That’s when Stiles paused and just stared at the goblet for a few minutes.

Danny was the one who finally asked, “Did it not do what it was supposed to?”

Blinking, realizing he still had a full audience Stiles blushed, “Uh, no, it actually looks exactly how it’s supposed to look, and it smells right, I just am mentally preparing myself for the next steps which are not going to be fun, and also I just realized it might be a good thing you’re here because I’m going to literally be a bit defenseless for a bit, which is terrifying but not as terrifying as other bits of this spell. This spell is going to work though.”

The wolves felt some relief when the sparks heart stayed steady, but Danny asked, “How defenseless are we talking, and for how long?”

Stiles considered his words a bit before blurting them out, “Well once the actual spell starts instead of just the prep work, I won’t be able to access my magic for anything else, and it’ll temporarily paralyze me for the duration of the spell as well, which is fine, but if you could all make sure nothing crosses the circles like a bear or a rogue wolf, that would be great because I’d rather not die.”

Then without further explanation Stiles moved to the center of the circle with goblet in hand, then carefully sat down. No one knew how to respond, so by the time anyone could think to respond, Stiles was already grimacing as he threw his head back and chugged the entirety of the goblet.

When he was finished he looked like he wanted nothing more than to puke it all back out, clearly it tasted very foul, but he slapped a hand over his mouth and after a minute, looking a bit more pale but less like he was going to puke he dropped his hand. That was when he started chanting a bunch of words that even Lydia wasn’t certain where the language came from.

Slowly the various lines, circles, and runes started to all glow in a rainbow of darkened hues. Once every bit was glowing, suddenly the flames of the candles sored high like they had just caught some gas in the air. Next the bush grew in size, blossoming with berries weighing down it’s stems. The rocks then began to stack on top of one another, the water in the pond started moving as if it was an ocean wave, the gold began to float, melting as it seemed uncertain what shape to take, and they could hear the wind pick up around the cloud, despite nothing inside the circles moving.

It all happened one at a time, but also so quickly they barely took it all in before Stiles finally stumbled over a word they knew, Nogitsune, followed by some similar sounding words before falling silent.

They hadn’t noticed how much his voice was filling the clearing until he fell silent, and then his words seemed to echo again despite his mouth being closed. In fact, Stiles was falling onto his back, his heart slowing, his eyes fluttering, his breathing almost non-existent. When his heart was getting slow enough to worry the wolves, suddenly his skin began to glow a bright gold, most of his clothes seeming to dissipate out of existence.

In contrast, when he opened his eyes, they seemed to be a black void that the light seemed to just disappear into. For a while it seemed like the glow was ebbing, then the darkness seemed to grow less like a black hole. It cycled through a dozen times before chains made of light, tethered at the seven points seemed to form, wrapping themselves around Stiles’ body over and over until he was hidden from sight.

No one could even look into the clearing anymore, the light was too bright. It felt like days could have passed, but in reality, it could not have been more than one or two hours. Finally the light began to fade, not just from the chains and Stiles skin, but the lights from all the ruins. The cloud dispersed, the water stopped moving, the rocks tumbled to the ground, the flames went out entirely, and where the metal had been there was nothing at all.

In the center Stiles looked to be sleeping, his heart and breathing steady. Sitting, curled on his chest, was a red fox, and an arctic fox, both had their faces almost hidden in the other’s fur. Upon each of their necks was a golden chain.

They all stared, not quite sure what they were seeing and even more unsure of what they should do. Just when they were getting nervous, the sunlight starting to fade, proving more time had passed than they originally though, Stiles jerked up into a seated position, which had both foxes tumbling off his chest, one landing on his lap the other slipping off into the dirt.

Stiles went wide eyed as he looked down at them, then a grin split his face, “Oh my god, that actually worked and it wasn’t even one, they were twins, holy shit!”

Derek crossed his arms, “Now what, do we kill them?”

Stiles shifted as if to put himself between them and the foxes with a glare, “They are babies, and also no, over my dead body.”

Peter looked around the clearing and something finally clicked, “You made them your familiars?”

He sounded like he was pretty certain it wasn’t a question, and Danny muttered, “Maybe we should get Stiles some clothes, and get out of here before it gets dark. Clouds are rolling in and it’s supposed to freeze, so not a great night to be naked in the woods.”

The spark apparently had not realized he was naked until Danny mentioned his clothes, and then he went red as a tomato and shifted his back to them. His mates, despite the confusion, and even the others in the area, were shocked by the scarring that covered the entirety of his back. Yet over the scars there had been hundreds of dark runes etched into the flesh.

A handful of them were angry red, and there had been more on his torso, more on all of his body. The most shocking was in the center of his back, looking almost like a yin and yang symbol, where two foxes that looked identical to the two on either side of the spark “Fuck no one said anything about it turning you naked!”

Jackson started busting up and got the bird, and he got two little foxes almost hissing at him, but they were just little kits. Not even threatening in the slightest, so soon most of the clearing was busting up, even as the wolves worked to pool a jacket and a pair of sweats. The foxes had lost interest in Jackson when a butterfly flew through the clearing, both of them trying to paw at it without much success.

Peter ended up being the one to bring the spark the offered clothes, and he looked over his mate as Stiles mumbled a thanks and pulled the clothes on at record speed. Stiles then rushed to grab his book, except he barely made it a single step before he about toppled right over.

The spark would have ended up on the ground no doubt if Peter hadn’t caught him, stabilizing him for a moment before his whole body slumped. When the rest of the pack showed their fear Peter just grinned, “Our mate is magically strong enough to concur two Nogitsune and remake them into his own strength. Even if they were young, even if they were not full blood, they are still the equivalent of some very high level demons, and our mate won in a battle of power and strength of will. No doubt he will need some time to recover from the use of so much magic.”

Jackson and Danny both shared a confused look, before the former asked, “Mate?”

Derek growled and Peter hefted the spark over his shoulder like he weighed ten pounds, “Do you have a problem with our mate? Does it have anything to do with the attack on his person days after his mother’s death?”

Paling considerably, Jackson still managed to stand his ground, despite how much he was clearly terrified in that moment, “I’m just saying, once he’s had time to process he’s going to be devastated. He’s dedicate almost all of his free time to trying to be the ideal emissary and it’s almost unheard of for a mated magic user to be an emissary.”

That got both Alphas to calm down, Derek gathered what was left of the various items they had brought, which wasn’t much at all. Erica raised her hand as if in class then winced and spoke up, “He did say, ‘God no’ that day of you interviewed with him, when I asked if he was just there to knab himself a Hale, and he specified that he only said that because he wanted to be our emissary so much.”

Derek tensed but Peter laughed, “Hales are notorious for having the alpha’s mate as their emissary as well. Somehow it’s worked out that three out of five alphas have mated their emissaries, or their mates proved skilled enough to become their emissaries out of necessity. I see no reason why we should end the tradition now.”

Jackson relaxed considerably, “Thank God, he would whine so much otherwise.”

From over his shoulder, Peter heard the spark mutter into his back, “Whose gonna whine?”

They had started the trek back to the vehicles, which proved to be a good idea because clouds were coming in and it was getting dark, the temperature dropping. The alpha carrying their mate didn’t bother to set Stiles down or even answer because after a second his breathing evened out as if in sleep;

“We’ll need to get him some food and water. I can’t wait until the new head of the magic council takes over, but right before he does I’m going to inform that bastard Druid that our Spark not only performed what most druids and witches call the hardest magic, and not only was he successful, but he managed to get two high powered familiars out of it.”

Said familiars where staying within sight of Stiles at all times, even when they would get distracted by anything and everything, they always kept close. Derek shook his head, “Well best do it now, I sent a text to move up the time table while he was getting all the stuff for that spell. You weren’t kidding about those wards, my wolf was ready to curl up in a ball because it knew we were so safe. Not to mention his scent filling the room.”

Peter nodded, “Positively intoxicating.”

Danny looked a bit nervous but his words were firm, “The two of you are going to have to be careful not to rush anything, you need to properly court him. Even if you are fated, you can still fuck this up so easily. Stiles has some serious intimacy issues. We’ve been in business together for about four years and he hasn’t had an actual relationship the entire time. The queens at the jungle had tried to set him up a couple times that first year, but then he told them something and they haven’t since. He’s never even had a second date with someone, and he’s told me that he liked quite a few of them, he just couldn’t do it.”

The older alpha grew solemn as he shifted Stiles so that he could look at his face, “Yes, I believe you are quite right. We can’t just assume because our wolves are entirely on board that he will feel the same, even if we do have his name on our chest, imprinted by his very magic.”

That had the Curandero going wide eyed, “Wait, his true name? All of it?”

Derek let out a huff, “I imagine so, it’s ridiculously long.”

Danny winced, as if that information somehow hurt him, “Alright, you are going to want to keep that hidden, there is a reason his mother and their family gave their children names like that. Granted, reading and pronouncing them are very different but still.”

The whole pack looked confused and Jackson asked, “What is that supposed to mean? What do you mean true name?”

Rubbing a hand over his face and then almost tripping over a root in the path Danny sighed, “Sparks, especially the ones from his mom’s family, tend to be the target of anyone wanting to steal their magic. If his true name got out, witches and Fae could use dark magic to try and steal his power and life away from him. He’s taken extra steps to prevent that but his family was super superstitious about names and their meanings.

"They believed their ancestors would give them the names of their children, and each name would tell of the life they would one day live. It is not meant to be shared with anyone but those closest to their heart, they don’t even put it on their birth certificates. Even his dad doesn’t know his whole name, his mom even used some sort of ritual to be sure she didn’t remember it either, and to protect Stiles from being forced to give it up.”

Lydia jumped in the moment he stopped talking, “We don’t have to worry about that, I couldn’t see whatever it was Derek was freaking out about.”

Erica nodded, “Same, I didn’t see what Peter was looking at either, and he kept touching his skin but I didn’t see a thing.”

In response to that Derek pulled his still ripped shirt to the side and pointed at the two names he could clearly see, “Can any of you see it?”

Peter immediately nodded, “Yes, my name and then his, just like I have your name and then his name.”

The rest of their pack shook their heads after taking a peak, and Danny looked a pinch relieved, and they were all surprised when Stiles mumbled, “It’s a magical bond, if you don’t share it you can’t see it.”

They were getting closer to the vehicles, and Peter grinned down at the Spark as he blinked slowly, like he was about to fall back asleep, “awake are we?”

In response the spark mumbled something unintelligible that had Peter frowning, but Danny spoke up, “I think he’s alright but I’ll take a closer look at him when we get to the cars. I’m not sensing anything seriously wrong though.”

That had many of them feeling relieved, but they were forced to pick up the pace when a downpour started up. Jackson took Lydia into his arms, and Boyd took Danny so that the wolves could run the last distance to the cars.

Everyone jumped in the vehicles, except Peter, his cargo, and Danny, who huddled under the lifted back of the SUV so that the Curandero could work his magic. Derek got the car started, getting it warmed up and turning on the heated seats for their mate, who had quickly gone pale, nearly blue in the lips, teeth chattering and shivers rocking his form.

After holding a hand over the sparks chest and muttering a few words, Danny opened his eyes and said, “Extreme exhaustion. He just needs some food, water, and a bit of rest. Also warmed up, because this cold water is not helping in the slightest.”

That was all Peter needed to know, and he rushed to get Stiles into the warm front seat, stripping him of his wet clothes but quickly covering him with a dry blanket Isaac had told him was in the back of one of the SUVs. Everyone else was chilled but not nearly as bad. As the two Hales worked to get the seatbelt around their fated, the two foxes jumped up into the floor of the vehicle right around Stiles feet.

Somehow they didn’t appear to be wet and not sure if he could shew them somewhere else, Peter allowed it, instead just closing the door and hopping in the back, “Let’s go to the den so we can keep an eye on him. Plus he can’t have pets in that apartment building and I don’t even know if it’s legal to have pet foxes.”

The wolves that were going to drive the other two vehicles heard and the procession moved out. Once they were back on the road, heading to the not too distant den, Derek spoke, “He should meet the rest of the pack too, and I’m assuming you have a contract and a spell ready, since you were so convinced that I’d agree we couldn’t choose another emissary.”

Peter smirked and put his feet up on the middle consul, “Are you saying that I was wrong?”

Derek let out a huff, “I’m saying a bit more warning would have been nice. I certainly made an ass of myself.”

The older alpha let out a huff, “Like you wouldn’t have done that even if I had told you ahead of time, plus I wanted you to be able to have the excitement of your wolf telling you he was the one, that you had found our perfect match.”

That seemed to ease the younger’s frustration, though some of that might have to do with the fact that their mate was filling the car with his scent, and he had stopped shivering, his lips slowly getting back a healthy color. He showed no sign of waking the entire drive to the manor they called the den. It was difficult, but they managed to put Stiles in one of the guest rooms, instead of in their own. They at least made sure it was the nicest available guest suite, and made certain that he was tucked under a warm comforter.

Stiles woke on a mattress that he’d sell a kidney for, soft memory foam over something that was giving his whole body the perfect amount of support. He could not remember the last time he woke up where he didn’t have some sore spot or kink from his ancient lumpy mattress. He hadn’t had the energy to try and get a new one up those stairs, and no doubt this particular mattress was far more than he could afford.

The sheets and comforter definitely went perfectly with the mattress, in that it probably would cost Stiles every penny he had in his account to buy them. They were luxurious and soft and he blamed them entirely for being so very slow to wake up.

By the time he finally sat up in the bed he had remembered everything from before he likely passed out. He felt a grin pull at his cheeks at the sight of the two foxes curled up on the bed next to him, blue and amber eyes blinked slowly at him. He reached over slowly, and scratched them both behind the ears.

They both leaned into the touch and he knew he would need to find their names soon, but that could come later. He looked about at the massive room, and the bed was the biggest he had ever seen, he didn’t even know they made beds this big. It wasn’t until his bare toes found their way onto a plush rug, and he caught sight of his pale ass legs, made more so for the stark contrast between the ruins and blank flesh, that he realized he was once again naked.

He was considering if he could turn a sheet into a toga when he realized there was a stack of clothes on the far edge of the bed. He quickly pulled on the sweats, relieved he could have some of his modesty preserved. Once dressed he moved towards the door, trying not to hiss when his feet moved from the carpet to the cold hardwood floor.

The two foxes were keeping next to or right behind him, and he was certain their cuteness was off the charts. He knew that witches tended to be very attached to their familiars, but he felt as if these two might as well be his babies, despite only having them a short time. The room was dimly lit by a couple strips of light pouring in from behind the curtains covering most of one big wall and a good portion of the other.

Opening two of the three doors revealed a massive bathroom and closet, the third led him into a living space bigger than his apartment with a fireplace and an even nicer kitchen and the furniture looked like a damn display or something, like it hadn’t ever even been used, had just been set up to show off how fancy it all was.

There were a couple doors on either side of the one he came out of, but there was only one on the opposing wall. The windows in this room did not have closed curtains so Stiles was able to gage that the sun was low in the sky. He wasn’t sure if it was sunset or sunrise quite yet though.

He could very faintly hear noise coming through the far door, and once he opened it the ruckus got that much louder. The long hallway he traveled down looked like it should belong to some rich apartment building.

There were little side tables and seats centered between most of the doors. He counted six doors before he came to the end of the hall, he could see across a massive open space, with ceilings that had to go up at least three stories, and a chandelier bigger than him. On the other side was another hallway just like the one he had come from, and it was set under a massive set of stairs. It appeared he had found an entranceway.

Between the two hallways was an open archway, and when Stiles moved to peak around it he found a set of open rooms that matched the entranceway with how grand they were. The ceiling towered above them, though not quite as high. There was a big room with half a dozen couches and twice as many big sofa chairs, on one side of that room was dining room and a kitchen of equal mass.

Stiles didn’t even want to count how many chairs were around that table, though a good number of them were filling up, or already filled. The massive kitchen was filled with a couple people who appeared to be either cooking or filling glasses for drinks. One person was manning two Keurig’s while another was just pouring a regular pot of coffee into mugs and adding some sugar or milk to some.

Now that Stiles was entering the room he could smell the delicious food, it smelt like every breakfast food that was worth making was being made. He recognized more people in the room than just the ones he knew were in the pack.

For a minute he just stood at a distance and tried to process just how big this pack was. The pack he had met already was less than half of the pack currently in the room, granted some of the numbers were children, but still, it was allot. He was just trying to do a head count when the white fox made a hissing noise before launching at its brother.

That got pretty much everyone’s attention and Stiles tried not to freak out at all the different colored eyes that flashed. Instead he focused on his two bratty familiars, his voice stern, “You two knock it off right this second.”

The two separated immediately and moved to sit on opposite sides of him. They both were tucking their tails and acting like a dog that just got scolded. Once he was sure neither of them were going to attack the other he glanced up at the now silent room and raised a hand as if to wave, “Morning?”

It was a relief when Danny handed over a knife he was using to cut something and came over to take a look at him, “Stiles, I can’t even tell you how relieved I am to see you up finally.”

Then he was pulling the spark to the end of the table that was still mostly empty, minus Lydia and Jackson who was almost next to him, just down a seat that he assumed would be Danny’s but he wasn’t sure, “How long was I out for?”

Danny took the seat next to him as Jackson said, “Almost two days man, not cool.”

Sliding doors off the dining room were jerked open, and the two alphas entered the dining room, eyes on him, as he responded to Jackson, “Dude, most witches sleep for at least a week after binding a familiar, though normally they don’t pass out right away.”

His foxes curled up at his feet and a little girl sitting next to Lydia slipped off her chair and knelt under the table to look at both of them. It had him grinning to see the wonder in her eyes, but before he could tell her they wouldn’t bite, Peter asked, “Are you alright? Danny, is he alright?”

Stiles rolled his eyes, “I’m fine, better than fine, though I feel like I could keep up with a werewolf in regards to eating right now.”

He spoke the last part with a laugh, but his words didn’t seem to comfort either of them. Danny used some of his healing mojo that had his skin tingling, the hairs all over his body standing on end. When he was done, he had a look of surprise on his face, even if his voice started out certain, “He really is perfectly fine, super healthy he just needs some food and probably wouldn’t hurt to get him some fluids, Gatorade, water, or milk.”

As if his words were an order a couple plates were set in front of him by Boyd, and then another little girl that looked just like the one under the table came running over with a bottle of water and a bottle of blue Gatorade. He gave them both bright grins, thanking Boyd by name, he got a wave and the smallest grin. Then he turned to thank the little girl, “Thank you, what’s your name?”

She looked to Lydia who gave a nod, then grinned, “I’m Maddie, and that’s Mariah under the table. What are the names of your foxes? They are really pretty!”

Stiles gave a grin and leaned in to whisper to her like he was sharing a secret, “I haven’t asked their names yet, but when I do you will be the first one I tell.”

Mariah let out a whine, “No Fair!”

Honestly Stiles wasn’t surprised she could hear the whisper, she was a wolf after all, “How about I tell you each one of their names first, would that be better?”

The twins shared a long look before they both nodded and grinned with excitement. They both moved to sit under the table, creeping closer and closer to the foxes until they were practically sitting on Stiles feet too. That was when Danny asked, still looking confused, “Was that your magic I felt? It seems so much… more, and a little different.”

Peter took the seat at the end of the table next to Stiles, and Derek sat next to him and across the table from Stiles. As they did various members of the pack set plates in front of them, Peter spoke to Danny, “I should think so, he took not one, but two familiars, and powerful ones at that.”

When Danny looked confused Stiles swallowed the bite he had taken of the sausage on his plate, which was delicious on a whole other level, “Not allot of witches take familiars because it’s no easy spell, and they also have to be able to brew that god-awful potion. One rune done incorrect, one ingredient not pure or strong enough and it can turn out really bad. Then you have to have the power to cast the spell and the power to pull a demon into the circle, and still have enough power, enough strength of will and spirit to be able to overpower the demon once it enters your body. If you don’t beat the demon…”

Stiles glanced down at the young girls and tailored his next words accordingly, “It’s not good. If you do overpower the demon, then it is transformed into a familiar, with a docile and non-docile form. Right now these two are in their docile form, when I ask for their name I will be able to call out their non-docile form. The docile form is supposed to be a reflection of the merge of their energy with my own, but ultimately both forms are shaped by the one who cast the spell.

“Now to the point of why my magic might feel different, according to everything I have read, especially in regards to the type of binding I used, taking in that much energy to a body forces the magical reservoirs to expand extensively, enough to hold all that energy along with all of our own energy. The cool thing about being a spark is that our bodies find ways to adapt, to change so we produce more magical energy so that it doesn’t take us forever to fill those reserves. However long I slept is however long it will take me to refill the newly enlarged magical reservoirs. I can’t wait to see what my magic scores will be now.”

As he had been talking he spread butter and the syrup Jackson handed him over a stack of three pancakes and proceeded to take a massive bite as soon as he could. He moaned at the delicious taste, and got allot of weird looks. The older alpha looked surprised, “I knew it increased your power, I wouldn’t have guessed that much, but you don’t really need to re-test in January. That is only required if you haven’t gotten an emissary contract by the end of the year you took your last test. Unless of course you choose not to sign the contract we are offering you.”

Stiles had taken another massive bite, and hadn’t even gotten a chance to properly chew when he heard that last bit and nearly choked on the massive bite. After coughing and drinking half his bottle of water he glance between Peter and Derek trying to see if they were pulling a prank on him, but both were acting so nonchalant, so calm as they started in on their own breakfast, “Are you serious?”

Both wolves looked at him, both showing their family resemblance by raising a single brow, the same brow nearly the same distance, and Peter answered, “I’m quite serious, after breakfast, and some introductions, we can go to my study and look over the contract.”

They appeared to be telling the truth, but Stiles knew he couldn’t believe it until he saw the contract, or more likely until the contract was signed by both parties. Thankfully it was mostly silent for a while as everyone ate. Once Derek and Peter were done they went around the table and introduced everyone Stiles hadn’t already met, turned out the children belonged mostly to Erica and Boyd, also apparently Lydia had the twins before her and Jackson got back together.

There was also a Kitsune named Kira, a were-coyote named Malia that was a cousin to the Hales, and then there was Cora who actually was a Hale, though she was a duel pack member with some big pack in south America. Liam was another wolf, mated to Hayden, who was a Kamira. Mason and Cody were also mated wolves. Then surprisingly was Alison and Chris Argent, the daughter was now a wolf, and Chris went to war against the rest of the clan to keep them from taking his daughter away from him. Then there was Jordan Perish, a hell hound who worked with his father.

Stiles had known he was a hell hound, he hadn’t known he was a part of the Hale pack. Still, everyone seemed nice and excited to meet him. The kids had started playing with his foxes and Stiles felt somewhere between elated and like he was waiting to wake up.

Then Peter and Derek were taking him up the massive stairs to the second floor (there was in fact a third floor as well) where his study was the first room on the left. It looked like a library with more books than the college he had gone to. Sitting in a ridiculously plush chair, he was glad he had taken a seat when Peter pushed the contract across the big oak desk.

It was a pretty standard contract, the kind he had seen before in his studies. There were a few differences. The magical binding was one, but Stiles was expecting that. He wasn’t expecting the change in the pay field, the number listed was almost three times more than the national average. He wasn’t going to say no to more money, but that was allot. There was also a clause about confidentiality about alternative business, but that wasn’t surprising.

What was most surprising, was a section stating that neither party signing the contract would let their courtship interfere with what was best for the pack, “Courtship?”

Peter and Derek nodded, the former spoke up, “We intend to court you from today onwards. Whatever it takes for you to happily accept our mating, we are more than happy to do it.”

“Oh.”

The rest of the contract was standard, part of it requiring him to take up residence in the primary pack residence. Which was the first part he had to actually contest, “This doesn’t say where the primary pack residence is.”

Derek for once spoke up, “This is the primary residence.”

Stiles crossed his arms, “You say that now, but in a week you could say it’s in New York, or anywhere.”

Peter nodded, “Yes, well about that, we occasionally alternate between this and a house we have near the beach in the summer. Obviously we collectively decide on a date in advance, but if most of the pack is at the summer house, we don’t want you stuck at this specific location. Also, we’ve been discussing building another pack house at one of our properties in Colorado for winter ski trips. Again, we wouldn’t want you to not be able to go.”

Raising a brow Stiles was surprised Peter hadn’t caught on to this wording, “I can reside in the pack house, that doesn’t stop me from traveling with the pack as necessary. If you want to get real specific then just put a clause saying that the residence may be changed temporarily with notice to some of the other Hale houses.”

The last thing the spark was expecting was for the older alpha to take the contract, and add the address and the clause almost verbatim what he had said. Then Peter handed Stiles the pen after initialing his edit, “We’ll need your initials there too, so it’s clear we both agreed.”

Stiles put down his legal name initials, then kept the pen to sign at the bottom. He stared at his signature for almost a minute before he handed the contract and pen back to Peter. The two Alphas signed the contract, then they made copies of the contract for each of them, the original would be filed with the magical council.

As he made the copies Stiles asked, “We didn’t go over the specific wording of the magical oath.”

Peter pulled out a slip of paper, “We were thinking something along the lines of this.”

Reading over it twice Stiles nodded, then paused before saying the oath, “Um, does this room have sound proofing? Cause I have to say my full name for a magical oath, and I’m not really comfortable sharing that with everyone, it’s embarrassing.”

The two alphas snorted, and Derek gave a nod, “No worries, it’s sound proof, and Danny told us about the whole name thing.”

Stiles nodded, then looked at the paper again, “I, Mieczyslaw Skjoldolfr Rafe Farkas Sigge Caelian Alarick Lyosha Zygmunt Kondrat Raoul Duffy Kellagh Mogens Trygve Ferdinand Obrecht Kliment Cortez Kelemen Luxman Damien-Balgair Amanah Bozhidar Yishai Sanosuke Zelig Durand Stilinski, do here by swear my allegiance to the Hale pack as their emissary. I swear to uphold the virtues and guidelines of my position and will prioritize the pack’s wellbeing over those outside of the pack.”

The words had a fun echo as they resonated for a minute, and Stiles knew his eyes no doubt had a glow to them as he spoke, though what color they turned was beyond him. When the magic settled Peter gestured for him to stand, “Will you accept a bite to signify your joining of our pack?”

Stiles tilted his head to the side, offering his neck, but both Peter and Derek took a wrist instead, which it took the spark about twenty seconds to realize what that meant, “Wait, you see me as your equal? Isn’t that…”

Waving his arms was all he could do because he couldn’t even find the right words just then. Both Alphas grinned, but before any more could be said, there was a knock at the door. Then the door was being pushed open by Cora, “Sorry, it’s an emergency.”

When she actually saw them she relaxed, “Oh good, I was worried you might be having sex. Seriously though, we just got a warning from one of Satomi’s wolves that the Alpha pack is approaching our territory. We’re not sure if they are here to negotiate or to wage war.”

Stiles felt his stomach drop, “Okay seriously that’s the one thing I suck at, I can’t negotiate treaties to save my life.”

The two alphas snorted and Peter kissed his cheek, “That’s the one thing we have covered, between Derek’s instincts and my genius manipulations of people, negotiating treaties in particular is our specialty. Not that I think that we will be doing that today. The alpha pack has two emissaries and they have more numbers.”

Smirking Stiles was certain of his next words, “Oh, don’t worry, I know their emissaries and I could, and would gladly take them both out, just give me the word.”

Peter tensed, “Technically you are not our emissary until this paperwork is filed.”

That only had the spark grinning with excitement, “We’re fated and I spoke a magical oath, the paperwork might make things official on paper, but that’s more than enough for me to step in as acting emissary until the paperwork can be filed. Also, as you’ve been interviewing me, legally this could be considered me making sure I’m securing my future position. I’ve got six other defenses too if the council tries to find any fault in those, they won’t though.”

Peter grinned, “Well, in that case, we’ll meet these bastards head on.”

Less than an hour later, they were in a clearing deep in the preserve, with nearly all of the Hale pack, though Kira, Lidia, and Perish had stayed back with the children. Everyone else was lined up on either side of Derek and Peter. The two alphas were a step in front of the line, and Stiles with his two newly named foxes, were standing behind them.

Stiles had been given enough time to grab his emergency bag with everything he would need to take on even the entire magical council. The Druid and witch working for the alpha pack wouldn’t stand a chance. Stiles really hoped he was given the order to finish them off.

The alpha pack had arrived, and at first they looked confident, then the two emissaries whispered something to the alpha of alphas, something Derek passed along, “They are pointing you out.”

Stiles grinned, giving a big wave as he called out, “Yes, I’m the spark that for more reasons than I can count, is acting as the Hale pack emissary. Sarah, Nate, it is so wonderful to see the two of you again.”

He saw them pale slightly, but then they were glaring at him, the next whispered conversation was meant to be private, they had cast a silencing charm at least, but it was easy enough to counter and mirror it at the same time, meaning they could hear what was being said across the divide, and Derek let out a growl, “They are recommending the alpha pack focus on taking you out first.”

Really, Stiles shouldn’t be this excited, as he looked first to the red fox, “Agni Magnar,” and then he looked to the white, “Niamh Deandra.”

Another witch or even a weak spark, would have needed to give a more lengthy command, but with his power and his will that was all it took. The red fox changed first with a snap, growing to the size of a horse, growing more tails that seemed to be made of fire, he also took on some bulk. The white went next, growing to a similar size, but she was clearly lean muscle. Below her feet the ground turned to ice.

Together, once their new forms had cemented fully, they let out a roar sending a wave of energy soaring over the heads of the Hale pack, but slamming into the wolves in the alpha pack. Every single one of them had been in their Beta shift, flashing red eyes, but now they all appeared human, as if the roar had demanded their submission.

It only lasted for a second, but it seemed to shake quite a few of the alphas. Evident by the way they took a step back. The Alpha of Alphas did not seemed pleased, and as his eyes returned to a glowing red, he shifted into a demon looking wolf.

Peter held up two fingers to signal that Stiles could do what needed to be done before he and Derek shifted into wolves equal in size to the demon wolf. The rest of the Hale pack shifted to Beta forms. Stiles waited until the demon wolf roared, attempting and failing to even get their betas to react, and then the wolf and most of his pack launched forward.

Taking that as a declaration of a pack war, Stiles snapped his fingers. Two circles started glowing under the other emissaries, and they had a second to let out panicked noises before turning to ash. That had a few more of the alpha pack stopping in their running assault, but there was still a good number of wolves going after his pack.

Stiles watched carefully, he would not belittle his pack’s strength by taking out all of their enemies, unless he saw a need too. He ended up having to take out two alphas who tried to join in the fight against Derek and Peter. They might be a pack of alphas, but they had declared Deucalion as their alpha, so only he could fight the alphas of the Hale pack.

Agni, or the fox he thought he would always call by the nickname red, took one of those alphas out, while Stiles hit the other with a lightning strike, perfectly aimed to only touch the single wolf. Considering there wasn’t a single cloud in the sky, he thought it was pretty impressive. Apparently the Alpha pack did as well.

Several of them got distracted by the show of power, and in that split second, a good majority of them lost their lives. What was interesting was that for a moment, several of the betas had glowing red eyes, but then they faded back to their natural color as the two alphas of the Hale pack seemed to take the energy.

Derek grew bulkier, clearly stronger, each snap of his teeth or swipe of his claws causing ten times the amount of damage. Peter grew faster, and considering he clearly had the knowledge of where to attack to cause the most damage, it was a matter of seconds before they had the Alpha pinned by the throat. The few remaining wolves that had attacked, but hadn’t been killed backed down as their chosen leader shifted into human form, the red leaving his blind sightless eyes to be replaced with blue.

Stiles was treated to the glorious sight of Derek and Peter’s backsides when they shifted into their human forms, though Peter kept claws at the other man’s throat as he spoke, “Care to explain why you would attack us Duke?”

The man winced and his expression was hard to read, even as multiple emotions crossed it, “My emissaries said if our pack grew strong enough, they could return my sight and I could rule over all of the US.”

The spark crossed his arms, “Then why attack after I smoked those fuckers?”

The former alpha looked from Peter to Stiles and back again before admitting, “I have a third emissary, but he is not official. He was stripped of the licensing for being an emissary, his magic bound, but he is still a powerful Druid. He sensed that the Hale pack was my final opposition and warned we had to attack swiftly, to be certain we could take you out before you got an emissary. He said we still had time, that no official emissary had been registered.”

Feeling like a stone was just dropped in his gut, Stiles asked, “What’s his name? The Druid, what’s his name?”

Both his foxes were hissing at the man, at what they perceived as the source of his growing fear and fury. Deucalion paled further, and spoke the one name Stiles did not want to hear, “Alan Deaton.”

Sucking in a breath, Stiles took two steps back and tried to get another breath in his chest because that first one hadn’t seemed to give him any oxygen. He was two seconds from a panic attack when Derek spoke, “Stiles, pack first.”

Peter added without taking his eyes off the man before him, “We’ll take care of this enemy pack first, than make sure the bastard doesn’t ever hurt anyone else again with his ministrations and tricks.”

Stiles managed to close his eyes and get in a normal breath, and then he focused back on the scene before him. A handful of members of the alpha pack had tried to flee the clearing, only to have themselves surrounded by ash circles. The ones who had attacked but had just backed down found themselves in similar circles as well.

Peter knocked out their leader and then stood, dusting dirt of his leg, “Those who did not move to attack us, forfeit your alpha status, and give us a single reason why we should let you live?”

Two massive twins immediately dropped to their knees, “We forfeit our power, our rights, and our titles as alphas.”

Then one of them called out, “We never even wanted to be a part of this pack, their emissaries cast some spell on us that made us accept him as our alpha.”

The other one called out, “We never even wanted to be alphas, we just got put in a no win situation, kill our alpha or end up dead situation, all because my brother’s gay. We’d barely killed him when those emissaries got ahold of us. Please don’t kill us, we’ll do anything!”

There was no lie, no deceit, and the wolves that had attacked let out growls before Stiles silenced them for now. They could speak if Peter or Derek asked them too. One guy hesitantly followed their example, but after he lost the red glow to his eyes, he just shrugged, “They hired me on, but I put in the contract that if it came down to my life or their battle, then I would chose my life. There was no betrayal. If anything I should have left a long time ago, that asshole owed me five hundred bucks and hasn’t paid me a dime in months.”

The remaining wolves followed suit, but the others Peter shook his head on, “I will not reward disloyalty, you betrayed your leader, and you betrayed you former packs. Stiles, could you repeat the ash circles from earlier?”

A snap of his fingers and each one who Peter shook his head on got the snap. When it was over, Peter turned to the wolves that had attacked and survived. Stiles removed the sound blocker and the female snarled, “You will return our Alpha’s power! You have no right to take it from him!”

The mountain of a man shook his head, “Kali, he lost, we cannot dishonor him by insulting the wolves that proved more powerful than him.”

The woman appeared torn at that, so fell silent, though she still glared at Peter in particular. Duke began to wake up then and Peter turned his focus back on him, “Morning sunshine, give us the location and all the information you have on Alan Deaton and we’ll let you live.”

The man snarled, “I’d rather die, what little sight I got is lost to me now. You will never get me to give you the name of the one man who could give me back my sight!”

Stiles let out a frustrated sigh, and snapped his fingers. Everyone was shocked when the pale milky eyes, and even the scars around them seemed to heal in an instant. After blinking three times, his mouth fell open, his eyes widening, and that’s when Stiles spoke, “Another snap and I undo that spell, and I can promise you, Alan Deaton does not have the power to give you what you desire. He only be spelled you to think he can. He was a pathetic Druid before his power was bound, and now he’s a manipulative piece of trash that needs taken out.”

Apparently giving the alpha what he wanted undid whatever magical hold Deaton had on him, “Oh God, what have I done. I-I will tell you everything I know about him, where he is, everything.”

He glanced at his pack, or what was left of his pack, “I am so sorry, I have not been the leader I swore to be, I picked a losing battle, and that is just one of many transgressions I have done in the name of something I never thought I would want more than protecting those I care about.”

Kali and the mountain of a man both looked relieved and also like they might cry, the woman speaking hesitantly, “We would have followed you to our death if you asked it of us.”

The British man shook his head, “IF I ever asked something like that of you, then I do not deserve such loyalty.”

The alpha with claws at the former alpha throat, apparently grew impatient, because he shifted his hold to dig his claws into the back of the neck. Stiles was quick to put up some shields and other protections, to be sure their alpha could get anything and everything he was looking for without risk of a mental attack or being overwhelmed, or just not being able to get what he was looking for.

A second later he released Deucalion who fell to the ground, and focused his eyes on Stiles, “You are the shadow spark, touched by darkness but not letting it consume your light or your life. I have heard rumors of all you have done, and with my sight, you have done what many in the magic council told me was not possible.”

Raising a brow Stiles asked, “Were they druids, because those idiots would say that because it’s all about 'the balance'.”

Deucalion looked like he was in awe of the spark, and then his gaze focused on a concerned Derek and a furious Peter. Baring his neck further the man spoke, “May I pledge my allegiance to the Hale pack?”

There were gasps from the wolves that knew what that meant. At this Peter turned to Derek, and they seemed to have a silent conversation, before Derek spoke, “We will temporarily accept your allegiance, and if you prove yourself to be loyal to our pack, then you will be able to join the very same pack. Is that agreeable?”

Rapid nodding was his answer, and then Derek put a claw mark on one of the man’s cheek, well away from his eye. IT would scar until he earned a place in the pack. Once that had happened, the mountain of a man and the woman dropped to their knees, each forfeiting their right to alpha-ship and requesting the same as Deucalion did. There was hardly a moment of hesitation before Derek moved towards them. Stiles broke the ash circles one at a time, allowing Derek to mark both of them.

Then Peter turned his attention to the hired wolf and spoke, “I don’t particularly care for hired wolves, but you may leave, just know if ever you take a contract against us again, you will not get our mercy a second time.”

The man gave a bow of his head, and once the circle was broken he fled. The twin wolves were still on their knees, had shifted as if they were trying to protect their stomachs.

Stiles was surprised when Derek walked over to them and spoke softly, but just loud enough they could catch his words, even without super hearing, “Pack is family, it is looking out for one another and caring for one another. I can see in your eyes you have not had this experience, and I am willing to offer you it now. Would you like to join the Hale pack?”

Both Twins glanced up with wide eyes, as if expecting it to be a joke, then they glanced at one another and one asked, “Join? As in we would be a member of your pack, not… not a…”

He glanced towards the other former alphas, and Derek shook his head, “No, you would be pack, you would get to stay in some of the den’s guest rooms until you pick ones of your own, or until you choose to move out. You will be expected to treat the rest of the pack with kindness and respect, and they will be expected to do the same to you. If anyone does not, you come directly to me, and things will get sorted out.”

Both young men broke into tears as they bared their necks, “Yes, we want to join, to have a real pack, please.”

They spoke in perfect unison, and Stiles once again broke the ash circles, this time Derek gave a swift nip over both of their necks. Derek turned his attention to the wolves he had clawed and added, “The same goes for you three, we consider pledges as trial pack members, which means if you show the pack disrespect, without cause, then you are out. If, after a period Peter and I will determine later, you have proven to work well with our pack, proven to be upstanding pack members, you will be granted that title. Does everyone understand?”

There were nods and many “Yes, alpha.”

Peter put in then, “If something is going wrong internally with the pack, if there are issues, you go to Derek, if it’s external, perhaps the town or other packs, or anything going wrong that is caused by external forces, you come to me. Now we have an emissary, so if you have personal problems you want to work through, or if Derek or I are not available, you can go to him. Isn’t that right Stiles.”

Trying not to grin with excitement, Stile gave a nod, “Yes, Peter, that is correct.”

There were a few murmurs as the realization went through some of the pack and some of the new members. The fact that Peter looked pleased at Stiles words meant only one thing, in an official setting like accepting new members to the pack.

Stiles was considering an equal to the alphas, if he were a wolf, that would have just been them declaring him a joint leader, but as an emissary and as their fated, it meant that he held more weight than the rest of the pack, but that he could not give orders with a command that could not be ignored. Not that either Hale alpha ever used their alpha commands unless it was in extreme circumstances.

Deucalion was quick to give them all the information he had on Deaton. All those that had joined them gave up key information. Peter and Derek were able to capture the bastard and took him to one of the warehouses that they did their dirty work in.

They made it one of many courting gifts they gave to the spark. Stiles had kissed them when they finally ripped his throat out. He had made sure to burn the body after being certain there was no way the Druid had pulled an escape or could pull off some sort of resurrection.

Being the Hale pack emissary was even better than Stiles could ever have imagined, though the reason he had originally desired the position was well and truly fulfilled, there were so many things that he hadn’t fully expected. He was jokingly dubbed the official pack mom. The pack all came to him separately in their own time, originally to vent or to work on things like Kira or Lydia’s lack of control over their abilities.

Most of the bitten wolves had managed to get some control, but it was still a struggle. When Stiles proved an amazing listener and managed to help everyone get better control, everything just got better. Not only was he helping with therapy and training and taking out fey and other nasties that came for the power Beacon Hills held, but he liked the pack.

He liked the pack and even more than that, they liked him. It wasn’t just that he was the potential future mate of their alphas, because he had caught a bunch of them reprimanding their alphas for not being more considerate or courting the ‘damn fine spark, who was too good for either of them.’

Stiles wasn’t sure about that, but outside of Danny and Jackson, he hadn’t really had friends. He liked the Queens at the jungle, but that wasn’t the same, he never talked to them outside of the club. While starting to train Lydia on some magic she wanted to learn, since she could do some as a banshee, Stiles found her to be just as good a friend as the two of them.

With a bit of help from him, in the form of venting, counseling, and advice, the three became a triad. They all loved each other, like really loved each other, and they all loved Maddie and Mariah. In less than a year of them asking their alphas to officiate a union for the three of them, they were expecting another addition to the pack. Not that Lydia was the only one pregnant at that point. Erica and Kalia were expecting anyway.

The former members of the alpha pack proved to be ideal pack mates, and found they were happier with the Hale pack then they could ever remember being. No one was surprised when Derek claimed them as pack early, letting the cuts heal from their face.

Once Stiles was officially made their emissary, allot of things changed, for the better. Though some said it started as soon as Stiles accepted the bite of his alphas. They were collectively stronger, the betas able to do more than most alphas could. After it was official, on their first full moon run, the entire pack shifted, entirely into wolves. Derek and Peter looked like dire wolves, larger than life. Their pack bonds became a thousand times stronger, and they felt more connected than ever.

The land changed too. After Stiles first visit to the nematon, it began to grow once more, becoming a tree in under a week, and with every inch, every new leaf, it’s power grew. Which did lead to some more creatures being drawn to it, but most ended up either ash from the wards, or joining the pack.

Peter swore it was easy to make treaties when even the Fae did not want to go up against Stiles, not after he had taken out a queen of theirs that tried to catch him alone in the preserve.

With all the changes, the Hale pack became even more famous, in fact, they became the leaders of a new supernatural council for those who didn’t have magic and shouldn’t be dictated by that council because of it.

The magic council got a new leader, who helped rid the council of some old bastards that believed some backwards bullshit. Which lead to a formal apology being issued to Stiles for their treatment of him. In fact, he found himself an honorary member of said council. Something he never imagined in a million years.

His grimoire of wards and protection got published, and became the bestselling book in the world’s supernatural community, even if it turned out allot of magic users just didn’t have enough magic to cast a good deal of them. His dad and Melissa were brought into the pack at some point just after the two got married, and Stiles was so relieved that he wasn’t the only one looking after his father.

The man looked younger than he ever had before too, and once the two alphas got to know Melissa, they understood why Stiles couldn’t kill her only son, though they informed him he was as much her son as the piece of shit that shared her blood.

Except, it turned out Scott wasn’t quite the peace of shit Stiles had once believed. He still wasn’t getting out of prison any time soon, and he wasn’t ever going to be a good friend, but it turned out that Deaton had used some dark magic on Scott and then Deucalion to get them to cater to his will.

Scott had been writing him apology letters for some time, but Melissa hadn’t passed them along until she thought Stiles was willing to even think about that. Scott had his powers as a wolf bound by the council so that he could finally be moved to a less high security prison, where he could actually get visitation from his mom, and spend some time out in the sun.

Peter and Derek weren’t kidding about the courting. They went above and beyond, doing all the proper wolf customs, but also taking Stiles out on the best dates he had ever been on. Eventually, with the help of a councilor of his own, Stiles was comfortable enough to take things further.

Once they had sex for the first time, almost a year after the start of their courtship, Stiles wanted to kick himself for not doing that sooner. His only experience had been a terrible one, and even though he knew logically that had been different, even though he knew most people enjoyed it, he had been almost certain he wouldn’t be able to.

Boy had he been wrong, and the alphas of the hale pack were more than happy to help him make up all the sex they could have been having. Everything seemed so perfect, and he could in part thank that stupid app.

The END

** Note, since some people were confused, deaton pulled a Peter Hale and came back!

If you don't like this work no one is forcing you to read it so no nasty comments, also I'm not an editor this isn't beta read so I'm sure their are going to be mistakes, I don't need them pointed out. If you can't say anything nice than please don't say anything at all.


End file.
